the members of an harlot God forbid He hath bought us to this very end that you may be no longer under the slavery of sin but under his blessed Government and the Scepter of his Spirit Tit. 2.14 He hath redeemed us from all iniquity that was his end to set us at liberty and free us from our sins and therefore for us to despise the benefit and to count our bondage to be a delight and priviledge this is to build up again that which he came to destroy to put our Redeemer to shame to tye those cords the faster which he came to unloose and so it is as great an affront and disparagement of his undertaking as possibly can be Therefore let not sin live and reign Secondly We are his not only by Purchace but by Covenant Ezek. 16.8 I entred into Covenant with thee and thou becamest mine We wholly gave over our selves to his use and service this Covenant was ratified in Baptism wherein we were planted into the likeness of his death Rom. 6.3 4 5. How into the likeness of his Death To dye unto sin as he dyed for sin that is explained by the Apostle ver 9. Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him his Resurrection instated him in an eternal Life never to come under the power of death again so are we to rise to a new life never to return to our sins again Now shall we rescind our Baptismal Vows and after we have resigned our selves to Christ give the Soveraignty to another the hands of Consecration have been upon us and therefore to allow our selves in any course and way of sinning is to alienate our selves and to employ our selves not only to a common but a vile and base use When Ananias had dedicated that that was in his power and kept back part for private use God struck him dead in the place Acts 5. And if we alienate our selves who were not in our own power and were Christs before the Consecration of how much severer vengeance shall we be worthy God complaineth of the wrong of Parents Ezek. â—6 20 that they took sons and daughters born to him and sacrificed them to be devoured by Moloch Children born during the Marriage-Covenant were his they were circumcised and so dedicated to him yet they gave them to Moloch as many Parents dedicate their Children to God by Baptism and bring them up for the World and the Flesh. This is veriâ—y a great sin in Parents but we are more answerable for our own Souls when we have owned the Dedication and ratified it by our own professed consent and if we shall willingly yield to the World and the Flesh and suffer them to have a full Power and Dominion over us how do we defie Christ whom yet in words we profess to be our Lord It is said Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof How shall we interpret this Scripture and reconcile it with the Carriage of most Christians de jure all will grant that they should crucifie the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof But the Apostle seemeth to speak de facto they have and that maketh the difficulty All true Christians indeed have done so Christians in the letter are bound to do so and let them look to it how they will answer it to Christ another day All in their Baptism have renounced the desires of the flesh and the passions of it also they are ingaged to do it and all that are serious and real have begun to do this act of mortifying sin and must go on yet more and more to smother the endeavours and effects of it Because this is a momentous business and it is charged on us as we are Christs as we profess our selves to be so and take our selves to be so let us see what it importeth They must all are bound they really have crucified the flesh mortified and deadned the root of corruption that it shall not easily sprout and put forth its lustings carnal Nature in them is weakened it is not so vigorous and stirring as it was wont to be there is some preventing of the first risings though sin dwell in them and work in them so far all that are Christs have put to death their fleshly corruption But now as to the several ways of venting of it expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either by sinful Passions as malice envy hatred variance emulation wrath strife they do in a great measure and considerable degree get above these or by Lust is meant all fleshly and worldly desires which carry us out of the Pleasures and Profits and Honours of the World the pleasing baits and inticements of Sense they are dead to these also all motions to Uncleanness Intemperance Ambition Love of Riches and vain Pleasures all the Children of God have actually begun this work and are still suppressing these things for they have resigned their hearts for Christ to dwell in and they are advancing his Scepter and Rule continually for they have given up themselves to be guided by him whether they be pleasant sins or vexatious evils the heart of a Christian is set against them and therefore you see how unsuitable it is for those that are Christs his redeemed ones and his covenanted ones to give way to the reign of sin 4. My last Argument to evince this necessity that is incumbent on the People of God that this Dominion of Sin be not set up in their hearts is because otherwise they cannot maintain and keep up any lively hope of Glory That I shall evidence by some Scriptures Rom. 6.8 If we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him If we dye to sin so as never to allow it or to return to the love and practice of it any more than the Christian Faith promiseth some good to us we have hopes of living with Christ or a joyful Resurrection to eternal Life for the Christian Life is an entrance and introduction into the Life of Glory So Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live The Scripture is plain in setting down the Characters of those that shall go to Heaven or to Hell and very decisive and peremptory If we live after the flesh we shall dye it doth not say if we have lived after the flesh for that would cut off the hope of all the living one man was first good and after bad as Adam another never bad always good as Christ of all the rest none ever proved good who was not sometimes bad we all lived after the Flesh before we come to live after the Spirit But if we do still accommodate our selves to obey and fulfil the motions of the flesh Christ speaketh no good to such But now see the Promise of God to those that keep mortifying of sin striving against sin
John 13.1 Jesus having loved his own that were in the World be loved them unto the end Christ was then thinking that he should shortly depart his Thoughts were not on his own Glory so much as our Danger If Christ would have thought of his own he might have thought of the Angels and glorified Saints Cyril and Chrysostom observe That he did not think of Angels and glorified Saints but of his own in the World those that were left to the Miseries and Temptations of an evil and unquiet World No question it was sweet to Christ to think of the glorified Saints and Angels but they were safe and now was a time to shew Pity rather than Delight The other Instance we have in his Prayers in this place from the 11th to the 17th Verse I might mention many Passages in his Sermons Christ when he was about to leave us he had the Affection of a Father to his Children or of a dying Husband to his Wife he was careful of our Estate after his Departure 2. So at his Death A great thing that was in the Eye of Christ was Victory over the World Gal. 1.4 He gave himself for us to redeem us from the present evil World Certainly Christ is willing to help you when he suffered so much that he might help you When you love the World you cross the end of Christ's Death His whole Life was but a renouncing the World The Poverty of Christ upbraideth our aspiring Projects and Pursuits of worldly Greatness We seek to joyn House to House and Field to Field and he had not a place whereon to lay his Head But in his Death he would make all sure One thing that he purchased of the Father is Grace to subdue the World When he was to die he said Lo I give my self upon Condition thou wilt give them Grace let them be freed from the Bondage of carnal Fears and carnal Desires There is not a thing more answerable to the Design and Aim of his Death than this is 3. After his Death and Ascension into Heaven he is tenderly affected toward Believers in the World He still retaineth his human Nature and his human Affections the same Heart and the same Pity Heb. 4.15 We have not an High-Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities Christ tho he be exalted is tenderly affected towards those that are left behind he is still tenderly affected towards you in all your Straights and Troubles and Infirmities Christ's Exaltation hath made no Change in his Bowels he carried his Love with him not only into the Grave but into Heaven he is our Lord but still our Brother as God he knoweth our Infirmities and as Man he feeleth them his Love is most at work when you are in Danger O what a Comfort is this in all your Temptations there is one in Heaven that seeth and feeleth all this let us bear it the better and ride out the Storm If a Man were perswaded that his Friends on shore knew what Tempests he endured at Sea and were praying for him it would be a great Comfort to him in his Distress Christ's Heart worketh towards thee he who is always heard is now praying for thee in Heaven he is touched with a feeling of thy Infirmities How should this comfort us They have many Snares and many Enemies Lord help them The Reasons of this Apprehensiveness and tender feeling are his Interest Love Charge and Experience they are his own John 13.1 Having loved his own that were in the World he loved them to the end 1. His Interest Christ hath a share going in every Believer As when there are Ships at Sea in which you have a share you pray for their safe return and are tenderly affected when you hear they are in danger Christ is loth to lose his Share he had but now pleaded his Interest with the Father Vers. 10. All thine are mine and mine are thine We are a part of his Goods the World would weaken the Estate of Christ. Believers are his Treasure and they are in danger of Rocks and Pirats and therefore he prayeth to the Father Now Christ hath an Interest in them not only by the Father's Grant but their own Dedication they are his and all that they suffer is for his sake Vers. 14. I have given them thy Word and therefore the World hateth them Let a Man go on in a wicked carnal ungodly way and the World will not vex him Let a Man once be zealous for Christ and then he must expect Trouble enough They endure all this for me and shall I not be sensible If a Child should inadvertently break his Leg or Arm you would pity him but if he should break his Leg or Arm in your Service or Defence to rescue his Father you would pity him more 2. His Love John 13.1 Jesus having loved his own which were in the World he loved them to the end Those whom we love we are troubled about their Welfare A careless Father may die and never be troubled what shall become of his Children but Love is very sollicitous Alas poor Orphans they are without a Guide and Guardian left to Snares and Temptations and shall it not pity them Hugo cryeth out O Charitos quam magnum est Vinculum tuum Deum in Terram traxisti cruci affixisti Sepulchro clausisti c. O Love how great is thy Power it was Love that brought Christ from Heaven that nailed him to the Cross that laid him in the Grave that carried him again to do our Business with God Had it not been for Love he had never come from Heaven and left the Bosom of the Father for the Lap of the Virgin the Form of God for the Vail of Flesh the Glory of Heaven for the Darkness of the Grave Had it not been for Love he had never died to deliver us from this present evil World he had never been sensible of our State and Condition Love is jealous and sensible of all the Dangers of the Party beloved the same Love of Christ that exposeth us to Troubles and Hazards for Christ's sake the same Love maketh Christ compassionate of our Miseries and Sorrows We are jealous of his Honour and he is jealous of our Safety 3. His Charge Christ hath taken an Office upon him to defend pity and guide the Elect through all Temptations to Salvation Now Christ cannot be unfaithful in his Office Heb. 4.15 We have not an High-Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our Infirmities He that is passed into the Heavens is still our High-Priest Give me leave to admire that Expression Heb. 8.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Minister of the Sanctuary When he was upon Earth he came in the Form of a Servant and now he is in Heaven he is still a Servant We may speak what Christ hath spoken for us he is our Officer and Minister even in Heaven not only in the State of his Abasement but
you to be careful to get and keep your Hearts clean to perform service acceptably to him to be in the exercise of Faith Love and other Graces that you may entertain as you ought your Heavenly King who comes to take up his continual abode and residence in your Hearts FINIS A TABLE of the principal Matters contained in this PART A. ABasement of Christ the truth of it Page 11 Aboad of Christ in us the fruit of it Page 333 Account all must be called to an Account Page 55 Actions all Actions and Employments have their Temptations Page 215 Afflictions why they befal God's People Page 132 God loves his People in Affliction Page 344 God is a Father to them in Afflictions Page 6 How to carry our selves in Afflictions towards God as a Father Page 7 Ambassadors Ministers Christ's Ambassadors and why Page 280 Angels entertain Christ at his Ascension Page 127 Anointed who were anointed Page 44 What Christ 's anointing implys Page 44 To what Christ was anointed Page 45 Antiscripturists have no true Holiness Page 237 Iudgments of God on them Page 254 Apostles and ordinary Ministers how they differ and wherein they agree Page 271 Arrian's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confuted Page 306 Ascension of Christ what it includes Page 61 The History of it Page 121 The Time of it Page 121 The place from whence and to whence Page 121 The manner of it Page 122 Christ ascended as a Conqueror Page 122 Angels entertain Christ at his Ascension Page 122 Christ's welcome of the Father at his Ascension Page 123 The Reasons of it Page 123 The Fruits and Benefits of it Page 124 A Token of his Satisfaction Page 124 A Pledg of our Ascension Page 124 Comfort to Believers from hence Page 126 How shall a Man know he is ascended with Christ. Page 125 Authority of Christ as Mediator Page 267 B. BElievers their Felicity and Dignity Page 108 Comfort to Believers Page 295 Believing vid. Faith Believing in Christ what it is Page 296 Difference between believing Christ and believing in Christ. Page 296 Difference between believing in Christ and believing in God Page 296 Which is most difficult to believe in Christ for temporal or for spiritual things Page 172 Blessing Christ blessed his Disciples before his Ascension Page 122 Blessing and praising God how they differ Page 49 139 Body all the Saints make but one Body Page 335 And shall at last be all gathered together into one Body Page 336 C. CAll to the Ministry the necessity of it Page 274 Extraordinary what it is Page 271 Not to be expected now Page 271 Ordinary inward what Page 272 Outward what Page 272 The necessity of it Page 272 What Call the first Reformers had Page 277 What is to be done where no Call can be had Page 278 How to make out our Calling to the People Page 276 Calling civil the necessity of it Page 53 What Callings are unlawful Page 54 God hath a hand in appointing Mens Callings Page 54 Every Man to keep in his Calling Page 276 How a Man should glorify God in his Calling Page 54 Every Calling hath its Snare Page 215 Care of Christ over his People Page 171 The fruit and success of it Page 173 Carelessness whether God hates most the careless Person or the openly vitious Page 229 Caution to be used in the World and why Page 135 Censure the whole Body not to be censured for the Miscarriages of some Page 180 Certainty of the Salvation of the Elect Page 78 And of their future Hopes Page 350 Charge what was the Charge God gave Christ concerning the Elect. Page 77 The ground of this Charge vid. Covenant of Redemption Page 77 Christ hath a Charge of his People Page 134 Christ is loyal faithful tender of his Charge Page 171 Children of God their Priviledg Page 125 Believers Children of Christ's Family Page 74 157 Christ what the Word signifies vid. Anointed Page 42 True God Page 17 A distinct Person from the Father Page 40 Sent by the Father vid. sent That he came out from God what it signifies Page 98 Made known to the Church by degrees Page 259 The Holiness of his Life Page 288 Tender of his Servants and Truth Page 18 Is ready to take notice of the good in his People Page 96 Speaks good of his People to the Father Page 80 Tho they have many Failings vid. Gentleness of Christ. Page 80 All that he hath is for his Peoples good and Comfort Page 125 Christ in us what is not to be understood by it Page 387 What is to be understood by it Page 389 How he is said to be in Believers vid. Union Page 311 Christ is in us as God is in Christ. Page 330 What must we do that Christ may be in us Page 332 Arguments to press us to look after this Priviledg Page 331 How we may know whether Christ be in us Page 333 Christian Doctrine the certainty of it Page 89 A Gift of God Page 90 Church visible in it always some Mixture Page 179 The use of wicked Men in the visible Church Page 179 316. Claim false Claims to God and Christ disproved Page 108 Comfort the loss of the greatest Comforts may be supplied Page 125 Commensurableness of the Acts of the three Persons in the Trinity Page 110 Of the distinct propriety of the three Persons in Believers Page 110 Reasons of it Page 110 Committing the Soul to Christ what it is Page 79 159 When we should do it especially Page 79 How we should do it Page ibid. We should commit our Bodies to Christ. Page 80 Communion with Father Son and Holy Ghost Page 310 Communion with God constant and habitual or solemn and special Page 358 Difference between Communion with God here and in Heaven Page 326 Communion between Saints on Earth and Saints in Heaven what it is Page 336 Company Christ takes delight in his Peoples Company Page 355 Reasons of it Page 356 Condition every Condition of Life hath its Snares Page 214 Confidence in God to be used in Prayer Page 4 Confirmation of Ministers the Magistrates Right Page 274 Conformity to Christ wherein it consists Page 324 Conscience what keeps it quiet without Christ. Page 297 Consubstantiation of the Lutherans disproved Page 127 Contentment none in the World for the Heart of Man Page 334 Continuance of God's People in the World in a time of Danger consistent with the Wisdom and Goodness of God Page 210 We should be willing to continue in the World as long as God hath Work for us to do vid. Desire of Death Page 211 Why God's People are not continued but taken out of the World in time of danger Page 211 Conversation worldly vid. wordly Conviction of the World of the truth of Christianity the fruit of the Mystical Vnion Page 320 A great Blessing Page 311 318 What the Spirit convinceth the lost World of viz. Sin Righteousness and Iudgment Page 312 313. The fruit and
Duties or the Legal administrations which are called carnal Ordinances Heb. 9.10 and Truth in opposition to them again as they are called shadows of good things to come Heb. 10.1 In this sense the Gospel or New Covenant might well be called the Law of the Spirit but not for this reason only but because of the power of the Spirit that accompanieth it as 't is said 2 Cor. 3.6 Who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life Lex jubet gratia juvat and the grace of the Gospel is the gift of the Spirit 3. 'T is called the Spirit of Life because through the preaching of the Gospel we are renewed by the Holy Ghost and have the new life begun in us which is perfected in Heaven and we are said Gal. 2.19 To be dead to the Law that we may live unto God that is that by vertue of the spirit of Christ dwelling in us we may live righteously and holily to the glory of God 4. 'T is the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus partly because he is the author and foundation of this new Covenant and partly also because from him we receive the Spirit as from our head we have the unction from the holy one 1 John 2.10 and the renewing of the Holy Ghost is shed upon us abundantly through Christ Jesus our Lord Titus 3.6 Thus I have plainly opened the first Law mentioned Let us address our selves to the second 2. The Law of Sin and Death Thereby is meant the covenant of works which inferreth condemnation to the fallen Creature because of sin and in part the legal Covenant not as intended by God but used by them it proved to them a Law of Sin and Death for the Apostle calleth it the ministration of Death 2 Cor. 3.7 and verse the 9th a ministration of condemnation Now because it seemeth hard to call a Law given by God himself a Law of Sin and Death I must tell you 't is only called so because it convinceth of Sin and bindeth over to Death and that I may not involve you in a tedious debate I shall expedite my self by informing you That the Law of works hath a twofold operation the one is about Sin the other about Wrath or the Death threatned by the Law 1. About Sin its operation is double First it convinceth of Sin as 't is said Rom. 3.20 By the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledg of Sin That is the use of it is to bring us to an acknowledgment of Sin and Guilt For when the Law sets before a man what God commandeth and forbiddeth and a mans Conscience convinceth him that he hath offended against it by Thoughts Lusts Words Deeds he findeth himself a sinner and his heart reproacheth him as one that is become culpable and guilty before God so that all are concluded under Sin by the services of that Covenant neither will the legal covenant help him for that is rather an acknowledgment of the Debt than a token of our Discharge a Bond rather than an Acquittance an hand-writing of Ordinances against us Col. 2.14 which did every year revive again the Conscience and remembrance of Sins Heb. 10.3 Secondly The other Operation of the Law about Sin is That it irritateth Sin and doth provoke and stir up our carnal desires and affections rather than mortify them For the more carnal men are urged to obedience by the rigid exactions of the Law the more doth carnal nature rebel as a Bullock is the more unruly for the yoking and a River stopt by a Dam swells the higher The Law requireth Duty at our hands but confers not on corrupt man power to perform it and denounceth a Curse against those that obey not but giveth no strength to obey that it is so is plain by that of the Apostle Rom. 7.5 When we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto Death While we were under the Dominion of corrupt nature Sins that were discovered by the Law were also irritated by the Law as ill vapours are discovered and raised by the Sun which were hidden in the earth before and so Sin brought forth those ill fruits the end whereof is Death but this is not to be charged on the Law of God but the perverseness of man for the proper use of the Law is to discover and retrain Sin and weaken it not to provoke and stir it up See how the Apostle vindicateth Gods Law Rom. 7.7 8. What shall we say then is the Law sin God forbid nay I had not known sin but by the Law for I had not known lust unless the Law had said Thou shalt not covet but sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence Thus he answereth the Objection If Sin grow more powerful in us by the Law then is the Law Sin No far be it from our thoughts the Law is not the cause but the occasion only as Sin sheweth its power upon the restraint Well then the ceremonies of the legal Covenant do not mend the matter for these are but a weak fence about our duty and bridling more of our liberty stubborn man spurneth the more against the Law of God and will not be subject to it 2. The other operation of the Law is about Death or the Judgment denounced against Sin and so 't is said the law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 as it bringeth punishment into the World and revealeth Gods wrath against the transgressions of men and raiseth the fears of it in our Consciences and 't is called the Law of Death because unavoidably it leaveth man under a Sentence of Death or in a cursed and lost estate by reason of Sin These are the two Laws 3. By one Law we are freed from the other the Apostle saith me but he personateth every Believer they are all freed by the Covenant of Grace from the bond and influence of the Covenant of Works so 't is a common Priviledg what belongeth to one belongeth to all 2. My second part is to suit the words as an Argument to confirm the former Proposition 1. They confirm the Priviledg There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ. They are free from the Law of Sin and Death he that is freed from the Law is acquitted from Condemnation it can have no power over him 2. The Description is double first from their internal estate they are in Christ Therefore they have the priviledges and advantages of his new Law of the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus Secondly their external course They walk not after the flesh but after the spirit They have a spirit and a quickning sanctifying spirit grace given them in some measure to do what the Law injoineth being under
〈◊〉 passions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 affections The first word noteth vexing passions the next desirable lusts There are two dispositions in the soul of man of aversation and prosecution by the one we eschew evil by the other we pursue good Corruption hath invaded both and therefore Grace is necessary to rectifie and govern both 2 Cor. 6.7 By the armour of righteousness both on the right hand and on the left 1. We must crucifie our passions which have to do with evils vexatious to the flesh and we must subdue our lusts or affections which have to do with those good things which are pleasing to the flesh there are vexing evils in which the mind suffereth a kind of affliction but 't is a disorder arising from self-love and therefore it must be mortified as envy which corrodeth and fretteth the heart of him that is surprized by it but yet self love is the cause of it for we are troubled that any water should pass by our Mill or that others should enjoy any honour or esteem or trade or profit which we covet for our selves so anger at any thing done by man which is displeasing to us and if given way to is a short fury and madness and hindreth a clear discovering of what is right and equal Jam. 1.20 So worldly sorrow at any thing done by God displeasing to the flesh 2 Cor. 7. Worldly sorrow works death So inordinate fear which betrayeth the succors which reason and grace offereth to fortifie us upon any sudden incursion of evil The fear of man bringeth a snare Prov. 29.25 So worldly cares which divert us from God and dependance on his Providence Phil. 4.6 7. Yea set up an anti-providence in our own hearts The like may be said of malice and revenge all which bring a torture with them and if allowed or indulged would soon destroy our love to God or men as if God withholdeth from us any good that we desire or sendeth that which we desire not but crosseth our humor as sickness want reproach or disrespect or whatever the heart is carried to eschew or if men enjoy any thing more than we would have them or do any thing contrary to the conveniency of our flesh we storm and fret justifie our passions think we do well to be angry tho these are a sort of sins which are a punishment to themselves and do destroy not only our duty but our peace and disquiet and torment and soul that harbors them yea will soon destroy that love we owe to God or man therefore they must be mortified 2. Not only our passions but our affections must be mortified Or more pleasant lusts to which we are carried by a sweeter inclination of nature such as are stirred up by carnal baits and pleasures as to instance in sins of the more sordid and brutish part of mankind motions to Intemperance Luxury Uncleanness and brutish Satisfactions or to instance in the more refined part of the world to worldly Greatness Honour and vain delights to be distinguished from others by Estate Rank and outward Dignity as every man is apt to be carried away by some inordinate lust or other now whatever the distemper be it must be purged out of the heart if we would have Christ have any interest there And here we must not only restrain the act but mortifie the habits for otherwise we cannot be safe for every temptation falleth in with some or other of these sins and giveth a new life to it unless the lusts are weakned the conversation cannot be Christian 1 Pet. 2.4 Abstain from fleshly lusts having your conversations honest and Jam. 4.1 From whence come wars and fighting Come they not hence even from your lusts that war in your members All their strifes and contentions come from their carnal hearts or sensual inclinations which first rebelled against the upper part of the soul or the dictates of Grace and Reason and then broke out into outragious or misbecoming practises And our Saviour telleth us that Murthers Thefts Adulteries come first out of the heart Matth. 15.19 From the polluted fountain of the heart floweth all the pollution of the life And if the act should be restrained yet unless the heart be cleansed all is loathsome to God Matth. 23.27 Therefore kill the lusts in your heart and ye shall more easily curb the sins of the outward man that they may not break out to Gods dishonour Many think to fashion the life but neglect the heart and if they keep from scandal yet they do not advance the Authority and Power of Grace in the Heart but self-love securely beareth rule in the soul. Many die by inward bleeding as well as by outward wounds therefore unless our irrascible or concupiscible faculty be bridled and made pliable to the conduct of the heavenly mind we shall do nothing in Christianity to any good effect 3. As to actual temptations when they stir indwelling sin complain of the violence to God Rom. 7.24 Oh wretched man that I am Who shall deliver me from this body of death Bemoan your selves to him who alone can help you and is ready to do so when you are afraid of doing any thing contrary to your duty and an humble sense of your impotency is not only a good preparative to receive his graces but also to defy and rebuke the temptation Matth. 4.10 Get thee behind me Satan and Gen. 39.9 How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God These are best smothered in the birth 4. Take heed of those sins which the people of God are most in danger of 'T is hard to say what they are for all sins when they are near and importune the flesh by the easie and profitable practice of them without danger or discovery may tempt an unwary heart Therefore we must have always our eyes in our head and stand upon our guard the secure are next to a fall there is no cessation of arms in this warfare nor treaty and conclusion of peace to be made with our lusts Sin is a bosome-friend but yet the sorest enemy and if we be not resolute and vigilant our appetites and senses or passions may betray us and if you be not daylie deadning worldly inclinations self-esteem and conceit you cannot stand out against the smallest temptation But they are most in danger of those sins which the temperature of body and constitution do incline them unto tho we must watch against all sins for all are hateful to God and contrary to his law and incident to us yet we are inclined to one sin more than to another there is something that is our privy sore and may be called the plague of our own hearts 1 Kings 8.38 Now this must be watched and striven against and here the victory is never cheap nor easie Many a groan many a prayer many a serious thought many an hearty endeavour it will cost us these master lusts they never go alone like great diseases that
the beloved to the praise of his glorious grace The people of God are loved from all eternity by his love of benevolence whereby he willed good unto them and decreed to bestow good upon them even when they were children of wrath in the sentence of the law But there is besides this the love of complacency whereby he accepteth of them as being reconciled to him and acquiesceth in them as his peculiar people and will bestow all manner of grace upon them Secondly As to sense or our feeling of this love Rom. 5.5 Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts When 't is evidenced to us that God hath thus sanctified us and adopted us into his family taken us for his children Rom. 8.16 And we are incouraged to look for the eternal inheritance as our right and portion The effects we have in our conversion called therefore effectual calling the sense we have by the Lords confirming Grace or the witness of the spirit which God giveth as a reward to his faithful and obedient servants Experienced seasoned Christians usually have it in a large measure 2. The people of God apprehend it as a very blessed and comfortable condition for here Paul in their name speaketh that as long as God loveth them they are not troubled about other things Death may separate the soul from the body depth of poverty may separate them not only from the preferments of the world but the enjoyment of their own estates Evil angels may disquiet them with temptations worldly powers exile them from their countrey and separate them from their dearest friends and acquaintance but as long as they are not separated from the love of God in Christ they are well apaid and contented for the Apostles triumph is not that he did escape the troubles but that he was not separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus Now this cometh partly from the real worth of the priviledg its self and partly from their esteem and value of it 1. For the real worth of the priviledge its self Surely Gods love can make us more happy than the world can make us miserable Consider a believer as to his present or future condition he is a blessed man For the present his sins are pardoned Psal. 32.1 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Their natures are healed 2 Pet. 1.4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust Their ways are directed and ordered Psal. 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. And for the future they have eternal life 1 John 2.25 And this is the promise he hath promised us even eternal life Now these are blessings the world cannot deprive us of and they are the fruits of distinguishing love but worldly things which are subject to the will and power of our enemies are not Eccles. 9.1 2. Love nor hatred cannot be known by these things all things come alike to all These have escaped the greatest misery and are intitled to the greatest happiness mankind is capable of 2. Their value and esteem of it above all worldly felicities Psal. 4.6 7. Many say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness into my heart more than in the time that their corn and wine increased Yea above life its self Psal. 63.3 Thy loving-kindness is better than life They were willing to renounce all to get it and therefore they are willing to renounce all to keep it Phil. 3.7 8. What things were gain to me I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things but loss He had counted and did count to shew that he had not repented of his choice Man is changeable and fickle highly conceited for one thing to day and another to morrow but the Apostle saw no cause to recede from his choice he continued still of the same opinion We often affect novelties are transported when we first change our profession and repent at leasure Now if he were to do it again he would freely do it supposing it to be gainful But now to have the favour of God and to be like him how valuable a blessing is it None are true Christians but those that are like-minded that value his favour above all things for otherwise God is loved with the respect of an underling and so cannot have the affection from us that is due to the chiefest good Psal. 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee 3. That nothing can separate us from the fruition of his love This will be best seen from the grounds 1. The immutability of Gods love to the elect His elective love maketh not only our vocation effectual but our justification and glorification also Rom. 8.30 He will not cease to love us nor cast off the care of our salvation till he hath brought it to its final period 2. The infinite merit of Christ. 'T is in the text The love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. His free-love is carried on to us in that way for the fruits of his eternal love we cannot obtain but by Jesus Christ. Now his merit is an everlasting merit he went not to Heaven till he had obtained eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9.12 A purchase that shall ever stand in force 3. The unchangeable Covenant and the promises of God which irreversibly make over this right to us 2 Cor. 1.20 For all the promises of God are in him yea and amen And Heb. 6.18 That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation Surely this should give us a strong consolation that we have the word of the eternal God for it That if we run for refuge and stick there nothing shall defeat our right 4. The union of a believer with Christ as a member of his body and so belonging to his care and protection For the Lord Christ is a Saviour to all those to whom he is truly an head Eph. 5.23 Christ is the head of the Church and the Saviour of the body Therefore every living member of the mystical body is safe nothing shall dissolve or break that blessed union that is between Christ and believers 5. The Almighty power of God and Christ 1 Pet. 1.5 Ye are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation Heaven is kept for them and they are kept for Heaven Christ hath promised his Almighty Power for the safety of believers As it was he and not we that purchased our salvation so it is Christ and not we that must have the keeping of the purchased benefits and he saith that none shall pluck them out of his hands and out of the Fathers hands
to oblige us the more strongly to endeavour it And Partly because we have consented to this obligation in Baptism All the members of the Church have ingaged themselves to imploy the death and strength of Christ for the subduing of sin they are dead as they have upon this incouragement undertaken its death and in part already begun it 2. How all can be said to be dead when Christ died Since most of the Elect were not then born or yet in being Answer 1. When Christ was upon the cross be sustained the relation of our head or Common Person 'T was not in his own name that he appeared before Gods Tribunal but in ours not as a private but as a publick person So that when he was crucified all believers were crucified in him for the act of a Common Person is the act of every particular Person represented by him As a Knight or Burgess in Parliament serveth for his whole Borrough and Country Now that Christ was such a Common Person appeareth plainly by this that Christ was that to us in grace what Adam was to us in nature or sin The First Adam was said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 5. â—4 The figure of him that was to come And Christ is called the Second Adam 1 Cor. 15.45 The Second Common Person So that as we had a death in sin from the First Adam so a death to sin from the Second As we stood in Adam in Paradise so we stood in Christ upon the Cross Adams act in Paradise was in effect ours In Adam we all died 1 Cor. 15.21 So Christs act was in effect ours In Christ we all died Spiritually and mystically Adam did as it were lend his Body in Paradise we saw the forbidden fruit with his eyes gathered it with his hands eat it with his mouth that is we were ruâ—ned by these things as if we had been by and actually consented to his sin So in Christs representation on the Cross all believers are concerned as if they had been by and actually present and had been crucified in their own Persons and born the punishment of their own sins for all this was done in their name and â—ead that they might have the benefit 2. Christ was on the Cross not only as a Common Person but as a Surety and Vndertaker I say in his death there was not only a Satisfaction for sin but an obligation to destroy it There was an undergoing and an undertaking As he is set out in the Scripture under the notion of a Second Adam So also of a Surety Heb. 7.22 Christ is called the Surety of a better Testament Now he was a Surety mutually on Gods part and ours First he was to ingage for us to God and in the name of God ingaged himself to us The tenor of both ingagements is in Rom. 6.6 That the body of death should be destroyed that we should from thenceforth no longer serve sin Assoon as we consent to this stipulation this taketh effect On Gods part Christ undertook to destroy the body of sin by the Power of his Spirit which should be given to us to become a principle of Life in us and of death to our old man Titus 3.5 More particularly we mortify the deeds of the body by the help of the Spirit Rom. 8.13 The Holy-Ghost when he reneweth the heart puts into it a principle and seed of Enmity against sin 1 John 3.9 He cannot sin because the seed abideth in him And as that is cherished obeyed sin is resisted and mortified And he actuateth and quickeneth it yet more and more that it may prevail against the sin which dwelleth in us 2dly As our Surety he undertook that we should no longer serve sin that we should not willingly indulge any presumptuous acts nor slavishly lye down in any habit or course of sin Or under the power of any arnal distemper but also should use all godly endeavours for the preventing weakning or subduing it Christs act being the act of a Surety he did oblige all the Parties interessed he purchased grace at Gods hands and bound us to use all holy means of watching striving humiliation cutting off the provisions of the flesh avoiding occasions weaning the heart from earthly things which are the bait and fuel of sin that keep it alive 3. Our consent to this ingagement is actually given when we are converted and solemnly ratified in Baptism 1. 'T is actually given when we are converted Rom. 6.13 As those that are alive from the dead yield your selves to God and your members as instruments of righteousness to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 weapons we then give up our selves to work and first as to do his work so to war in his warfare against the Devil the World and the flesh Till the merit of Christs death be applyed by faith to the hearts of sinners they are alive to sin but dead to righteousness but then they are dead to sin and alive to righteousness and as alive from the dead and then yield up themselves to serve and please God in all things 2dly That this is solemnly done or implyed in Baptism For when we were baptized into Christ we were baptized into his death Rom. 6.3 4 5. In Baptism we did by solemn vow and profession bind our selves to look after the effects of Christs death to mortify the deeds of the body or which is all one renounce the Devil the World and the flesh The Devil as the great architect and principle of all wickedness the World as the great bait and snare the flesh as the rebelling principle Our Baptism is certainly an avowed death to sin it implieth a renunciation by way of vow for 't is the answer of a good conscience towards God And the ancient covenants were made by way of question and answer 1 Pet. 3.21 The very washing implieth it washing is a purifying and after purifying we must not return to this mire again 2 Pet. 1.19 He hath forgotten he was purged from his old sins We promised to give over our old sins or as 't is our first ingrafting and implanting into Christ and his death if when we are baptized we are reckoned to be dead The death of Christ was mainly to put away sin and to take away sin 1 John 3.5 And Heb. 9.26 Now sins were not taken away that men may resume and take them up again The great condemnation of the Christian world is that when Christ would take away their sins they will not part with their sins 3dly How they can be dead to sin and the World since after conversion they feel so many carnal motions Ans. 1. By consenting to Christs ingagement they have bound themselves to dye unto sin When we gave up our names to Christ we promised to cast off sin and therefore we are to reckon our selves as dead to â—in by our own vow and obligation and accordingly to behave our selves Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead
Dangers they may pluck Joint from Joint but they cannot pluck the Soul from Christ that is once really implanted into him 2. Observe That Eternal Life is Christ's Gift It is not the Merit of our Works but the Fruit of his Grace Rom. 6.23 The Wages of Sin is Death but the Gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is good to observe how the expression is diversified Sin and Death are suited like Work and Wages but Eternal Life is a mere Donative not from the Merit of the Receiver but the Bounty of the Giver Works that need Pardon can never deserve Glory Grace in us runneth as Water in a muddy Channel the Child hath more of the Mother It is true there is a concurrence of Works but not by way of Causality but Order God will first justify then sanctify then glorify Justification is the Cause and Foundation of Eternal Life and Sanctification the Beginning and Introduction of it and we have both by Christ. The first is obtained by Christ's Blood the second wrought by his Spirit See Ephes. 2.8 9. By Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Not of Works left any Man should boast The Instrument of Salvation is Faith which requireth a renouncing of Works and Faith also is of Grace The Papists to excuse the gross Conceit of Merit say our Works do not merit but as they come from the Grace of God and are washed with the Blood of Christ. But neither Salve will serve for this Sore 1. It is not enough to ascribe Grace to God all Justitiaries will do so the Pharisee said God I thank thee I am so and so You confound the Covenants when you think we may merit of God by his own Grace God maketh us Righteous by Grace and if by the exercise of it we deserve Life Adam under the Covenant of Works must then have been said to be saved by Grace because he could not persevere in the use of his Free Will unless he had received it from God 2. Nor as dyed in the Blood of Christ because Faith disclaimeth all Works as to the Act of Justification and there is no Merit if it be of Grace Learn then to admire Grace with Comfort and Hope Merit-Mongers are left to be confuted by Experience Surely Men that cry up Works seldom look into their own Consciences Let them use the same Plea in their Prayers they do in their Disputes Give me not Eternal Life till I deserve it Lord let me have no Mercy till I deserve it Or let them dispute thus when they come to dispute with their own Consciences in the Agonies of Death then Optimum est inniti Meritis Christi 3. Observe The Gifts that God is wont to give are not earthly Riches worldly Power transitory Honours but Eternal Life This was the great End for which he was ordained by the Father Many come to Christ as that Man Luke 12.13 Master speak to my Brother to divide the Inheritance with me He looked upon him as aliquem magnum one furnished with great Power fit to serve his Carnal Ends such fleshly Requests are not acceptable to our Mediator The Lord loveth to give Blessings suitable to his own Being He liveth for ever and he giveth Eternal Life to the Elect. Learn then how to frame your Requests Say I will not be satisfied with these things Remember me with the favour of thy People O visit me with thy Salvation that I may see the good of thy Chosen that I may rejoice in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thine Inheritance Psal. 106.4 5. 4. Observe From the Expression Eternal Life Our Estate in Heaven is expressed by Life and Eternal Life This is a term frequently used to signify the glorified Estate Now it doth imply not only our bare subsistence for ever but also the Tranquillity and Happiness of that state 1. It is Life Heirs together of the Grace of Life 1 Pet. 3.7 Life is the most precious Possession and Heritage of the Creature there can be no Happiness without it All our Comforts begin and end with Life Life is better than Food Mat. 6.25 Is not the Life more than Meat and the Body than Raiment Poisons and Cordials are all one to a dead Man Creatures base if they have Life are better than those which are most excellent A living Dog is better than a dead Lion All Creatures desire to preserve Life All the Travail of Men under the Sun is for Life to prop up a Tabernacle that is always falling Job 2.7 Skin for Skin and all that a Man hath will he give for his Life All our labour and care is for it and when we have made provision for it it is taken from us It is called the Life of our Hands Isa. 57.10 We make hard shift to maintain it This Life is a poor thing it is no great matter to be Heir to it James 4.14 What is your Life it is even a Vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away 2. It is Life Eternal not like the Earthly Life which is but as a Vapor a little warm Breath or warm Smoak tunn'd in and out by the Nostrils Our present Life is a Lamp that may be soon quenched it is in the Power of every Ruâ—â—ian and Assassinate But this is Life Eternal In Heaven there is a fair Estate the Tenure is for Life but we need not take thought for Heirs We and our Happiness shall always live together The Blossoms of Paradise are for ever fresh and green therefore if we love Life why should we not love Heaven This is a Life that is never spent and we are never weary of living This Life is short yet we soon grow weary of it The shortest Life is long enough to be encumbred with a thousand Miseries If you live till old Age Age is a burden to it self The Days shall come in which they shall say we have no pleasure Eccles. 12.1 Life it self may become a burden but you will never wish for an end of Eternal Life that is a long date of days without misery and without weariness Eternity is every day more lovely Well might David say The loving Kindness of God is better than Life Men have cursed the Day of their Birth but never the Day of their New Birth Those that have once tasted the sweet and benefit of God's Life never grow weary of it 3. This Life is begun and carried on by degrees 1. The Foundation of it is laid in Regeneration Then do we begin to live when Christ beginneth to live in us and we may reckon from that day when in the Power of his Life we began to advance towards Heaven for then there was a Seed laid of a Life which cannot be destroyed The Life of Nature may be extinguished but not of Grace Rom. 8.11 If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus
content with it God is the Master of the Scenes and appoints which Part to act We must not prescribe to Providence at what rate we will be maintained nor what we will do but keep within the Bounds of our Place If you do any thing that is not within the compass of your Calling you can have no warrant that it pleaseth God Christ would not intermeddle out of his Calling Luke 12.14 Man who made me a Judg or a Divider over you Vzzah's putting his Hand to the Ark cost him dear If Troubles arise we cannot suffer them comfortably we are out of God's way Most of our late Mischiefs came from invading Callings as there are Confusions in Nature when Elements are out of their Places God is glorified and served in a lower Calling as well as in an higher Poor Servants may adorn the Gospel of God our Saviour in all things Tit. 2.10 Answ. 2. With Patience digest the Inconveniences of your Calling Affliction attendeth every state and condition of Life but we must go through chearfully when in our way and place 4. This Work must be finished and perfected we must be working till God call us off by Death or irresistible Providences We must persist hold out in God's Way without Defection Rev. 2.10 Be thou faithful unto the Death I will give thee a Crown of Life Get the Gift of Perseverance happy are they that have past such a tempestuous Sea with safety He was a foolish Builder who laid the Foundation of a stately Fabrick and was not able to finish it O when this is done we may resign up our selves to the Mercy of God 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the Righteous Judg shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing It is an excellent thing after such a dangerous Voyage to come safe to Shore How sweet is it to enjoy our past Lives and yield up our Spirits to God saying Lord I have made it my study to glorify thee Isa. 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect Heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Others Souls are taken away but yours are resigned II. Why this should be our great care 1. This is the End why all Creatures were made Rom. 11.36 For of him and through him and to him are all things When God did make the World he did not throw it out of his Hands and leave it alone to subsist of it self as a thing that had no further relation to him but so guides it and governs it that as the first production and continued subsistence of all things is from himself so the ultimate Resolution and Tendency of all things might be to him The whole World is a Circle and all the Motions of the Creatures are circular they end where they began as Rivers run to the place whence they came All that issueth out of the Fountain of his Goodness must fall again into the Ocean of his Glory but Man especially If God had made us to live for our selves it were lawful But Prov. 16.4 The Lord hath made all things for himself all things are made ultimately and terminatively for God but Man immediately Creatures are made immediately for us and submit to our Dominion or are created for our use 2. From God's Right and Interest in us Rom. 14.7 8. For none of us liveth to himself and no Man dieth to himself For whether we live we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lord's We are his and therefore for him All that you have is God's and by giving it to you he did not divest himself of his own Right God scatters his Benefits as the Husbandman doth his Seed that he may receive a Crop His Glory is not due to another He made us out of Nothing and bought us 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Ye are not your own ye are bought with a Price therefore glorify God in your Body and in your Spirit which are God's If we had any thing our own we might use it for our selves 3. We shall be called to an account Luke 19.23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my Mony into the Bank that at my coming I might have required my own with Vsury We must give an account what honour God hath had by us in our Relations as Magistrates Ministers Masters of Families Servants Husbands Wives Parents Children What Honour by our Estates Relations c. We are obliged so deeply by preceding Benefits that if there were no account to be given we should be careful to use all things for his Glory Oh but much more when there will be so strict and severe an Account The Lord of those Servants will reckon with them What we enjoy is not Donum a Gift but Talentum a Talent to be improved for our Master's Use. Beasts are liable to no Account because they have not Reason and Conscience as Man hath and are meerly ruled with a Rod of Iron they are to glorify God passively but we are left to our choice and therefore must give an account 4. Because of the great Benefit that cometh to us by it God noteth it and rewards it He noteth it Joh. 17.10 And all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them Our Redeemer speaketh well of us behind our Backs and maketh a good Report of us in Heaven And he rewards it in the day of his Royalty Christ will not be ashamed of his poor Servants Mat. 19.28 Ye which have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the Throne of his Glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel 5. The End enobleth a Man and still the Man is according to his End Low Spirits have low Designs and a base End is pursued by base Actions Mat. 6.22 23. The Light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thine Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light But if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of Darkness Men are properly such as the End that they aim at he that pursueth any worldly Interest or earthly Thing as his End is Earthly he becometh himself Earthly the more the Soul directeth it self to God the more God-like their Inclinations are above the base things of this World Psal. 17.14 From Men of the World which have their Portion in this Life and whose Belly thou fillest with thy hid Treasures The Noblest Soul is for the Noblest Object others do but provide for the Flesh they drive on no greater Trade they may talk of Heaven wish for it rather than Hell when they can live no longer but their Lives are
his Office was to be Mediator between God and Man An Office of so high a Nature that it could be performed by none but him who was God and Man in the same Person For he that would be Mediator was to be Prophet Priest and King As a Prophet he was to be Arbiter to take knowledg of the Cause and Quarrel depending between them and as an Internuncius and Legate to propound and expound the Conditions of Peace that are to be concluded upon As he was a Priest he was to be an Intercessor to make Interpellation for the Party offending and then to be a Fidejussor or Surety making satisfaction to the Party offended for him As he was a King having all Power both in Heaven and Earth he was to keep and present the Church of God so reconciled in the state of Grace and to tread down all Enemies thereof Here is a great deal of Glory far above any Creature Secondly What he wanted that he should pray to be glorified The Glory of his Person and Office was yet but imperfect 1. Of his Person in both Nature It is said Phil. 2.7 He made himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he made himself empty and void not simply and absolutely for then he would cease to be himself and then he would cease to be God but Oeconomically and Dispensatively vailing and covering his God-head under the Cloud of his Flesh the Beams of his Divinity as it were wholly laid aside only now and then it broke out in his Works and Speeches Certainly he abstained from the full use and manifestation of it He did not cease to be what he was but laid aside the manifestation of it and hid it in the form of a Servant as if he had none at all The World could not discern him to his own familiar Friends he was now and then discovered as occasion did require it Otherwise in his whole Course his Incarnation Nativity Obedience to the Law of Nature to the Law of Adam Law of Sin of Abraham were a vail upon him He suffered Hunger Thirst Weariness bitter Agonies shame of the Cross pain of Death ignominy of the Grave Yea he was not only in the form of a Servant to God this Commandment have I of my Father John 6.38 But he was subject to worldly Powers a Servant of Rulers Isa. 49.7 wholly at their dispose His Human Nature was subject to natural Infirmities Hunger Thirst Fear Sorrow Anguish he had not attained Incorruption Impassibility Immortality nor that glorious Purity Strength Agility Clarity of Body which he expected Phil. 3.21 together with the fulness of inward Joys and Comforts in his Soul He lost for a while all Sense and actual Fruition of his Father's Love Mat. 26.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me So that tho he had the Spirit without measure in Holiness and Righteousness yet he was still humbled with unpleasing and afflictive Evils 2. For his Office It was managed as suited with his Humiliation and all his Actions of Prophet Priest and King could not be performed gloriously but in an humble manâ—er as suited with his present State He was an ordinary Prophet teaching in the World as a Priest hanging on the Cross as a King but he had but few Subjects therefore it is said Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour as if he had not exercised any of his Kingly Office before but he was but as a King anointed he did not so evidently shew forth the Kingly Office as afterward Now he doth not overcome his Enemies by Force or by Power 1 Sam. 16.13 David was a King as soon as anointed but for a long time he suffered Exile and wandred in the Wilderness before he was taken into the Throne So it was with Christ. II. His Exaltation What Christ prayed for might be known by the Event His Exaltation begun at his Resurrection and received its accomplishment by his sitting at God's right hand His Exaltation answered his Humiliation his Death was answered by his Resurrection his going into the Grave by his ascending into Heaven his lying in the Grave by his sitting at God's right hand which is a Privilege proper to Christ glorified In the other we share with him we rise we ascend but we do not sit at God's right hand By his Grave tho this Body was freed from Corruption his Human Nature was discovered but his Body had not those glorious Qualities as afterwards at his Ascension Therefore leaving his Resurrection let us speak of his Ascension and sitting on the right Hand of God First His Ascension Three Things happened to Christ at his Ascension 1. The Exaltation of his Body and Human Nature it was locally taken from the Earth and carried into Heaven Acts 1.9 While they beheld he was taken up and a Cloud received him out of their sight into the same Heaven into which we shall be translated They err who say that Christ's Ascension standeth in this that Christ is invisibly present every where which destroyeth the Properties of a Body there was not only a change of State but a change of Place it was a created Nature still finite 2. The Glorification of his Person which is the thing spoken of in this Text then all the thick Mists and Clouds which eclipsed his Deity were removed Not that there was any Deposition or laying aside of his Human Nature that is an essential part of his Person and shall continue so to all Eternity but only of all Human Infirmities he laid aside his Mortality at his Resurrection and necessity of Meat and Drink but was not restored to his Glory till his Ascension his Body was so bright that it shall pass through the Air like Lightning clearer than the Sun Upon the Earth he was ignorant of something of the Day of Judgment now he hath all Wisdom not only in Habit but in Act. Before he grew in Wisdom which he manifested by degrees now the Glory of his Deity shineth forth powerfully 3. A new Qualification of his Office Christ hath exercised the Mediatory Office from the beginning of the World till now before his coming in the Flesh when on Earth and after his Ascension Secondly The next thing we are to speak of in the Glorification of Christ is his â—itting at God's right hand Psal. 110.1 The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right Hand till I make thine Enemies thy Footstool It is Christ's welcome as soon as he came to Heaven The Angels guarded and attended him and they brought him near the Ancient of Days Dan. 7.13 I saw in the Night Visions and behold one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds of Heaven and came to the Ancient of Days and they brought him near before him They that is the Angels did it they are his Ministers Heb.
in their place but by their Faith and the Godly are elsewhere called of the Hâ—â—shold of Faith Where ever our Implantation into Christ or Participation of the Privileges of his Death or our Spiritual Communion in the Church is spoken of the Condition is Faith It is a Grace that sendeth us out of our selves to look for all in another It is the Mother of Obedience as all Disobedience is by Unbelief so all Obedience is by Faith First he said Ye shall not die and then Ye shall be as Gods First he seeketh to weaken their Faith in the Word they could not be proud and ambitious till they did disbelieve Therefore above all Things let us labour after Faith Our Hearts are taken up with the World the Honours and Pleasures of it these cannot make us happy but Christian Privileges will all which are conveyed to us by Faith But let us come to the second Point Doct. 2. That in the reckoning and sense of the Gospel they are Believers that are wrought upon to believe in Christ through the Word Here is the Object Christ the Ground Warrant and Instrumental Cause and that is the Word The Warrant must be distinguished from the Object the Warrant is the Word and the proper object of Faith is Christ as considered in his Mediatory Office Sometimes the Act of Faith is terminated on the Person of Christ and sometimes on the Promise to shew there is no closing with Christ without the Promise and no closing with the Promise without Christ. As in a Contract there is not only a receiving of the Leaâ—e or Conveyance but a receiving of Lands by virtue of such a Deed and Conveyance So there is a receiving of the Word and a receiving of Christ through the Word the one maketh way for the other the Promise for our Affiance in Christ. Faith that assents to the Promise doth also accept of Christ there is an Act terminated on his Person Faith is not assensus axiomati a naked Assent to the Propositions of the Word but a Consent to take Christ that we may rely upon him and obey him as an Alsufficient Saviour But now let us speak of these distinctly First Of the Object that is to believe in Christ. There is believing of Christ and believing in Christ. He doth not say those that believe me but those that believe in me through their Word Believing Christ implieth a Credulity and Assent to the Word and believing in Christ Confidence and Reliance Once more Believing in Christ is a Notion distinct from Believing in God Joh. 14.1 Ye believe in God believe also in me Since the Incarnation and since Christ came to exercise the Office of a Mediator there is a distinct Faith required in him because there are distinct grounds of Confidence because in him we see God in our Nature we have a claim by Justice as well as Mercy we have a Mediator who partaketh of God's Nature and Ours and so is fit to go between God and us Briefly to open this believing in Christ it may be opened by the Implicit or Explicit Acts of it 1. There is something Implicite in this Confidence and Reliance upon Christ and that is a lively sense of our own Misery and the Wrath of God due for Sin All God's Acts take date from the Nothingness and Necessity of the Creature and from thence also do begin our own Addresses to God God's Acts begin thence that he may be All in All from the Creation to the Resurrection God keepeth this Course and then the Dispensation ceaseth for then there is no more want but fulness Creation is out of Nothing Providence interposeth when we are as good as Nothing at the Resurrection we are nothing but Dust God worketh on the few Relicts of Death and Time So in all Moral Matters as well as Natural it is one of his Names He comforteth those that are cast down When he came to convert Adam he first terrified him They heard the Voice of God in the Garden and were afraid Gen. 3.10 He delivered Israel out of Egypt when their Souls were full of Anguish We are first exercised with the Ministry of the Condemnation before Light and Immortality are brought to Life in the Gospel and still God keeps his old Course Men are first burdened and sensible of their Load before he giveth them ease and refreshment in Christ. At the first Gospel-Sermon preached after the pouring forth of the Spirit Acts 2.37 They were pricked in their Hearts Christ's Commission was to preach the Gospel to the poor and broken-hearted and bruised Luke 4.18 The Spirit of the Lord was upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the Poor he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach Deliverance to the Captives the recovering of Sight to the Blind to set at liberty them that are bruised This is the Road-way to Christ. And all our Addresses to God begin too thence Man is careless Mat. 22.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they made light of it and proud Rom. 10.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God The Israelites were not weary of Egypt till they were filled with Anguish Adonijah when he found himself guilty of Death he laid hold on the Horns of the Altar The Prodigal never thought of returning till he began to be in want and to be soundly pinched Therefore till there be a due sense and conviction of Conscience it is not Faith but carnal Security In short we can never be truly desirous of Grace we cannot prize it we do not run for refuge Heb. 6.18 We are not earnest for a Deliverance till there be some such Work There are two Things keep the Conscience quiet without Christ Peace and Self Carnal-security and Self-sufficiency 1. It is hard to wean Men from the Pleasures of Sense and to make them serious in the Matters of their Peace before Christ and they be brought together they and themselves must be brought together This God seeketh to do by outward Afflictions that he may take them in their Month as the Ram was caught in the Briars In Afflictions Men bethink themselves 1 Kings 8.47 If they shall bethink themselves in the Land whither they are carried Captives c. It makes them to return upon themselves how it is between God and them If Affliction worketh not he joineth the Word it is a Glass wherein we see our natural Face James 1.21 God sheweth them what loathsome Creatures they are how liable to Wrath. Or if not by the Power of his Spirit upon their Consciences their Reins may chasten them they cannot wake in the Night or be solitary in the Day but their Hearts are upon them so great a Matter is it to bring Men to be serious 2. Self When the Prodigal began to be in want he joined himself to a Man of that Country Luke 15.15 We have slight Promises and Resolutions and
effects of the World's Conviction Page 314 Why Christ prays so earnestly for it Page 315 God honoured hereby Page 315 The advantage of it to the Elect. Page 316 It lessons and increases the World's Iudgment and how Page 317 Arguments to press Christians so to live as to convince the World Page 321 God would have the World convinced of his Love to his People Page 347 Reasons of it Page 348 How the World should be thus convinced Page 347 Convictions not to be slighted nor rested in Page 318 319 How we may know whether we are convinced only or converted Page 319 Covenant of Redemption the terms of it Page 77 What was proposed by the Father in it Page 155 What Christ undertook Page 156 Covetousness one of Judas's Sins Page 174 The evil of the Sin Page 177 To be avoided Page 177 Creatures discover God Page 28 33 Doting upon the Creatures withdraw the Heart from God Page 335 D. DAnger cannot be withstood by us in our own Strength Page 171 Christ apprehensive of the Danger of his People in this World Page 133 Reasons of it his Interest Love Charge Experience Page 133 Comfort from hence Page 136 Death desire of Death vid. Desire Death of Christ Christ died to promote Vnity among Christians Page 1â—â— Why the Death of Christ hath so little Effect upon us Page 291 Decay of the Power of Godliness brings trouble on the Church Page 195 Delight excessive in worldly things shews a worldly Heart Page 209 Desires show the temper of the Soul Page 208 Desire of Death whether lawful and what Desires are so Page 212 213 Difference between serious and passionate Desire of Death Page 213 Carnal Desires of Death whence they arise Page 212 Believers must be willing to dye Page 354 Despair one of Judas's Sin Page 175 To be avoided Page 178 Devil the great Author of the Troubles of the Church Page 201 219. Difference in course of Life provokes wicked Men especially Difference in Religion Page 200 Difference between Believers and Men of the World in their Principles Rule Conversation End Aims Page 204 Disrespect of the World not to be regarded and why Page 225 Hard to be digested Page 224 The best way to digest it is to consider Christ's Example Page 225 Distraction of Man's Thoughts after the Fall Page 333 This continueth till we return to God Page 334 Divisions in the Church how they arise Page 163 The mischief of them Page 165 166 They bring on Trouble Page 194 They that promote them contrary to Christ. Page 164 Who are guilty of this Sin Page 165 Doctrines of the Word shew it to be from God Page 260 Doctrines Christian vid. Christian. E. ELect none of them can be lost Page 173 Election a special Priviledg Page 66 Not for foreseen Faith good Works or Perseverance Page 364 Original and actual what Page 71 Election of Ministers the Peoples Right Page 273 End a Man is as his End is Page 55 Enjoying no enjoying God without Christ. Page 30 Envy of others worldly Happiness shews a worldly Heart Page 209 Wicked Men envy the Good in others Page 201 Error makes way for Looseness Page 232 Esteem of the World discovers a worldly Heart Page 208 Eternal State the Foundation of it laid in this Life Page 370 Evil Satan hath an Hand in the Evil that befals God's Church and People Page 219 Example of Christ the heavenliness of it Page 206 The Courage of it Page 206 Experience Christ hath Experience of his Peples Sufferings Page 134 F. FAith various Expressions by which it is set-forth in Scripture Page 391 The Nature of it Page 90 95. Difference between true Faith and counterfeit Page 93 The Acts of Faith Page 296 297 In Faith Assent Consent and Trust. Page 93 The Office of Faith to accept Christ and present him in Prayer Page 115 The Object of Faith Page 85 97 296 The Word vid. Receiving the Word Christ vid. Receiving Christ. Three things concur to the working of it the Light of the Spirit external Revelation and the use of fit Instruments Page 84 The Word the means to work Faith Page 88 The necessity use and power of the Word to work Faith Page 298 299 Why God useth the Word to this end Page 299 Incouragements to Faith Page 295 The Excellency of Faith Page 296 How it sanctifies Page 234 Faith a help to Ioy. Page 189 Faith cannot be without Knowledg Page 90 What a kind of Light the Light of Faith is Page 91 In the Knowledg of Faith there is undoubted Certainty Page 90 The work of Faith when we cannot apply Christ. Page 298 The Faith of the Apostles work yet by Christ commended to the Father Page 97 Faithfulness to our Charge recommended Page 67 Of Christ to his Father Page 83 Fall into Sin why God sometimes leaves his People to fall into Sin Page 218 What falls into Sin are inconsistent with Grace Page 148 Belivers not to be discouraged by every Fall into Sin Page 147 Father a Comfort in Prayer to call God Father Page 6 How to carry our selves in Afflictions towards God as a Father Page 7 God the Father chiefly offended by Sin Page 86 263 And he the supream Iudg. Page 86 264 Fear of want discovers a worldly Heart Page 208 Filth of Sin our Filthiness by Nature Page 291 Nothing can cleanse us but the Blood of Christ. Page 291 Finishing what Christ's finishing his Work signifies Page 47 G. GEntleness of Christ in bearing with his Peoples failings Page 80 85. Gift the Privileges of the human Nature a Gift Page 48 Work it self a Gift Page ibid. Gifts are fading Page 148 Wicked Mens Gifts useful to the Church Page 316 Given how Christ had given to his Disciples the Word of God Page 191 Given to Christ who are given to Christ. Page 21 76 153 351. None given to Christ but they that are the Fathers vid. Commensurable Page 72 107 109. Why God gave the Elect to Christ. Page 77 How Belivers given to Christ. By way of Charge vid. Charge Page 21 72 154 156 351. By way of Reward Page 21 72.154 155 351. How shall we knowwe are given to Christ. Page 159 351 Being given to Christ a ground of Consolation and Establishment to the Elect. Page 154 How it is such a ground of Establishment Page 158 Glory the fruit of Vnion as well as Grace Page 326 Shame the way to Glory Page 10 Christ in his last Will and Testament gives Glory to his People Page 350 The Glory that is given by Christ we have as sure as if in the Possession of it Page 322 The freeness of Grace in giving us Glory Page 349 Looking to future Glory a remedy in Tribulation Page 10 Glory of God much advanced by Iesus Christ. Page 11 Glory of Christ's Person what it is Page 358 What the Glory was Christ prayed for Page 9 61 Why Christ begged it of the Father Page 58 Why he was so earnest for
is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power Which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead To convert Souls to God there needeth a mighty working of efficacious Power which exceedeth all contrary power which might hinder and impede that work Men by Nature are averse from God the Devil seeketh to detain them from him and his powerful Engine is the World But now if they are to be raised as Christ was raised what can oppose this work So that we have not only the Merit of his Humiliation but the Power of his Exaltation And besides that this Power is likely to be exercised for us we may consider that Christ is said to rise by his own Power Joh. 2.19 Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up Joh. 10.17 I lay down my life that I may take it again and to be raised by the Power of his Father which noteth Authority to rise again and having fully done his work upon which account he is said to be brought again from the dead Heb. 13.20 and the Apostle inferreth from thence vers 21. Being made perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. Now if both these be implied in Baptism it doth mightily oblige the Parties baptized to look after the effect of these two Acts of Christ Mediation for Christians should not only believe the Death and Resurrection of Christ but feel it by the Merit of his Death and Efficacy of his Resurrection we obtain this new life and both are the causes of our dying to sin and living to God Secondly What it sealeth or confirmeth The new Covenant wherein God hath promised the gift of the Spirit to renew sanctifie and heal all those that enter into it We have the Grace to destroy sin by virtue of the Death and Burial of Christ but the Promises are in the new Covenant That the new Covenant is sealed in Baptism see Mat. 28.19 20. Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall de damned Now the great Promise of the new Covenant is the Spirit to renew and cleanse the Soul Surely this is properly signified in Baptism Joh. 3. 5. Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God And Tit. 3.5 According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost As the body is washed with water without so is the Soul cleansed by the Spirit within As at the Baptism of our Saviour the descending of the Holy Ghost upon him was a visible Pledge of what should be done afterward for at his Baptism the fruit of all Baptisms was visibly represented we are admitted Children of his Family as Christ was declared to be the well beloved Son of God Mat. 3.17 and we have the Spirit of his Son Gal. 4.6 Because ye are sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father As God promiseth to pour out water on him that is thirsty and floods on the dry ground so to pour out his Spirit on the seed and his blessing upon thy off-spring Isa. 44.3 And the Spirit it self is figured by Water Joh. 4.14 Whosoever shall drink of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life Joh. 7.37 If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink Rev. 22.17 Let him that is a-thirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely Now unless we will receive this Grace in vain we are bound to wait for and obey the Spirits motions either by way of restraint or excitation Rom. 8.13 14. If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live For as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God we that pretend to come to God for this Promise of the Spirit as in Baptism we do Acts 2.38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost Thirdly It obligeth as there is a kind of undertaking to shew forth the likeness of Christs Death and Resurrection by our submission to it Our receiving Baptism implieth two things 1. A publick and open Profession 2. A solemn Bond wherewith we bind our Souls 1. A publick and open Profession wherein we profess a Communion with Christs Death and Resurrection or to dye and rise with Christ. In the general that Baptism is an open Profession for it is required as a sign of the Faith that is in our hearts Rom. 10.10 With the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation And Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Acts 2.38 Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost As Circumcision was the Badge of the Jewish Profession so is Baptism of the Profession of Christianity Therefore the Jews are called Circumcision and we are called the purified people Tit. 2.14 Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works and those that are purged from their sins 2 Pet. 1.9 And more distinctly what we profess is plain and evident in this Ordinance we profess to dye and rise with Christ. 1. Death yea in the Text not only and simply to be dead but to be buried with Christ. If Baptism expresseth an image of Burial and every Burial supposeth Death not only of Christ but us surely we are bound not only to dye unto sin at first but to make our mortification more thorough and constant for as Burial noteth the continuance of Christs Death so should we persevere and increase in the mortification of sin for Burial is a continued dying to sin we should not only renounce and give over all the sins of our former lives but presevere in this resolution and increase in our endeavour against sin daily A Christian living in sin and serving his lusts is like a Spectre and Ghost arisen out of the grave 2. So for Christs Resurrection In this Ordinance we profess to rise again with Christ and therefore should not only put off the old Man or body of sin but have an earnest impulsion within our selves to the duties of Holiness and
mightily and effectually for it cometh not to us in word only but in power 1 Thess. 2.13 Ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe And more particulary in Mortification for it is Faith that purifieth the heart Acts 15.9 Where the Christian Doctrine is really entertained and received by Faith it taketh men off from their old sins 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit The obedience of the Truth is nothing else but Faith wrought in us by the Spirit upon the hearing of the Gospel this produceth in us that purity of heart and life which becometh Christians II. I will give you the reasons The Death of Christ may be considered as it worketh morally or as it worketh meritoriously As it worketh morally it hath a full and a sufficient force to draw us off from sin as it worketh meritoriously it purchaseth the Spirit for us As it worketh morally it layeth a strong ingagement upon us as it worketh meritoriously it giveth great incouragement to oppose and resist sin and set about the mortification of it So that the true way of subduing sin is by serious reflexion on the Death of Christ which we shall consider 1. As it is a strong ingagement 2. As it is a great incouragement 1. As it is a strong ingagement and there 1. It is a pattern to teach us how to deny the pleasures of the senses Pleasure is the great Sorceress that hath bewitched all the World and that which giveth strength to all temptations Jam. 1.14 Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed There is some sensitive carnal bait which first inviteth and then draweth us from our duty and all the Charms sin hath upon us are by the treacherous sensual appetite which is impatient to be crossed So when another Apostle speaketh of a revolt to the carnal life after some partial Reformation he giveth this account of it 2 Pet. 2.20 After they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled and overcome Before men be overcome by Temptation they are first inticed by the apprehension of some pleasure or profit which is to be had by their sins by which apprehension the danger of committing the sin is covered and hid as the Fishers hook is by the bait that is the Metaphor there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lapse again into the slavery of the former sins which they seemed to have escaped Therefore till we are dead to the sensitive lure and can be content to suffer in the flesh and to deny the satisfactions of the animal life we shall never avoid the slavery of sin nor know that our old man is crucified Now what is more powerful than the consideration of the Death and Example of Jesus Christ In his whole Life he was a Man of sorrows and so taught us to contemn the world and the pleasures of the flesh but especially at his Death when pain was poured in upon him by the Conduit of every Sense there he pleased not himself Rom. 15. 3. but conquered the love of life and all the natural contentments of life that he might please God and procure our Salvation Now we have not the Spirit of our Religion till we grow dead not only to the pleasures of sin but the natural pleasures of life yea life it self and can submit all to Gods glory 2. As it is an act of Love which should beget love in us to God again which love will make us tender of sinning There are many aggravations of sinning but the greatest of all is because we sin against so much Love as God hath shewed us in our Redemption by Christ. Sin is aggravated by the greatness of the Person against whom it is committed against the infinite Majesty of God as to strike an inferiour person is not so hainous a crime as to strike a Magistrate or Prince but this will not hold in all cases for foul indignities and grievous wrongs offered to meaner persons are a greater offence than the omission of a Ceremony to a Prince as if a man through ignorance of the customs of the Court should not be bare before his Chair of State Therefore take in the other Consideration of the infinite Goodness and Love of God towards us in Christ this doth exceedingly aggravate our sins They are acts of unkindness After such a deliverance as this is shall we again break thy commandments Ezra 9.13 14. after a deliverance out of Babylon out of Hell To sin against the infinite Goodness of a Creator by eating the forbidden Fruit we see what mischief it brought on Mankind conscious of this transgression the first Actors hid themselves from Gods presence But what is it to sin against the infinite Goodness of a Redeemer who came to recover us from this thraldom and bondage and to draw us to himself with the cord of love He chose rather to suffer the punishment due to our sins than to suffer sin still to reign in us whom he loved more dearly than his own life Gal. 2.20 Who loved me and gave himself for me Rev. 1.5 To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Now if after this manifestation of his Love we shall still continue in sin the hainousness of our offence is greatly increased 3. Christs Death is the best Glass wherein to view the deadly nature of sin It was so great and hainous an evil in the sight of God that nothing but the Blood of the Son of God could expiate it Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Jesus Christ must come and suffer a shameful Death this painful shameful accursed Death of the Son of God sheweth Gods displeasure against sin and what it will cost us if we allow it and indulge it in our hearts and lives for if this be done in the green tree what shall be done in the dry 4. It sheweth us also what a great benefit Mortification is This among others was intended by him and moved him to bear our sins in his Body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness To remember a good turn done by a Friend and not to prize and value it as we ought is rather to forget than to remember his friendliness So here if we do not prize Christs benefits we undervalue his Death and a lessening of the benefits is a lessening the price Now one of the chief of them is to take away sin and to break the reign of it in the heart of his
people and excludeth the prophane and unclean the holy Covenant must have an holy People suitable to it or else it speaketh no good to them if you be not holy you have no part in Christ nor interest in his Covenant Acts 20.32 And now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them that are sanctified Acts 26.18 To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that we may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me Well you see the whole scope and great drift of the Covenant is to promote Holiness 2. It remains to vindicate those Doctrines of Grace that may seem to occasion these imaginations 1. Gods freeness and readiness to pardon The Law threatneth Punishment but Grace offereth Pardon and Impunity therefore men let loose the reins they think Mercy will pardon all and discharge all But this is a wretched abuse 1. Though Pardon be offered to penitent Sinners yet it is on purpose that they may forsake their sins and timely return to the obedience of God Psal. 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared that they may not stand aloof from God as a condemning God but return to his fear and service It is offered to prevent despair not to encourage us in sin so that you quite pervert the end of the offer 2. This Pardon belongeth only to the Penitent The offer is made to all but none have an actual Right to it till they repent Isa. 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon And Prov. 28.13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy All Sinners are to be told That God is ready to pardon but all Sinners are not to believe that their sins are pardoned for this is an Act that belongeth to God as a Governor and Judge Some things God doth as a free Lord and there it is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 Other things God doth as a righteous Judge and Governor according to the Law of Commerce between Him and his Creatures there it is So run that ye may obtain 1 Cor. 9.24 To apply this to the case in hand Pardon of sins is an Act of Judicature dispenseth upon certain Terms gracious and free they are indeed but Terms and Conditions they are still without which we have no right to pardon or are not qualified to receive it All the Priviledges of the Gospel are a Benefit but a Benefit dispensed on certain Terms such as our Soveraign Lord was pleased to prescribe 3. They are expresly excluded that securely go on in sin Psal. 68.21 But he will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses That exceptive Particle But relateth to what was said of God before now twice before God is called a God of Salvation vers 19. Blessed be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits even the God of our salvation Selah And vers 20. He that is our God is the God of salvation But he will wound c. A man that goeth on still in his sins is reckoned an Enemy to Christ whatever he be by outward Profession and as an Enemy he shall be dealt with the God of Salvations or the merciful Saviour will not save him notwithstanding all that lenity and goodness which he sheweth to them that are sincere the God of Salvations will strike home upon their hairy scalp that is utterly destroy them Therefore when men go on in a state of Impenitency either ignorantly or against conviction of Conscience upon a presumption that Gods mercy shall bear them out they make the God of all Grace their Enemy his Justice is against you and his Mercy will not help you By the Law is the knowledge of sin and by the Gospel you are excluded from Pardon till you break off your sins by Repentance and the more sin you commit the further off you are from Salvation every sin is a step further Psal. 119.155 Salvation is far from the wicked for they seek not thy statutes à pari Salvation is near to the righteous Rom. 13.11 Now is your salvation nearer than when ye first believed Every man every day is a step nearer to Heaven or Hell The second Doctrine abused is Exemption from the Rigour and Curse of the Law Ye are not under the Law but under Grace Therefore men take a liberty to sin They are not under the Law But we must distinguish how we are and how we are not under the Law 1. We are still under the Law as a Rule of Obedience so the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 9.21 Not being without Law to God but under the Law to Christ. The Apostle still ruled his Actions by Law both the Law of God and the Law of Christian Charity To be in this sense without Law is either to make us Gods or Devils if you plead it de Jure of Right it is to make the Creature a God for it is impossible any created thing can be without Law that were to make it supreme and independent as if its own Will were its Rule without liableness to be called to an account by another Saul proclaimed 1 Sam. 17.25 That whosoever would encounter the Philistine his house should be free in Israel but it is as impossible to free the Creature from subjection to God as it is from dependance upon him If you plead it de Facto this were to make us Devils to live in direct opposition to God and rebellion against him or exempt us from his Authority Psal. 12.4 Who have said With our tongues will we prevail our lips are our own who is Lord over us Thus every Creature must be under a Law 2. There is a good sense in which we are said not to be under the Law as here in the Text and Gal. 5.18 If ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law that is not under the condemning power of it spoken of Rom. 8.1 There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ or the irritating power of it spoken of Rom. 7.5 While we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death namely as it did rigidly exact duty from us and gave no strength to perform it Well then we many from hence see what liberty we have by Grace there is a twofold Liberty an holy and blessed Liberty and a wicked and carnal Liberty First The holy Liberty is to be freed
pardon of God with promises of greater diligence for the future 3. to implore the special aid and assistance of Gods Spirit for the better performance of what we promise 4. we are to obtain it by the means of Christs Sacrifice and Intercession Who by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 9.14 there needeth no other Sacrifice If we thus humbly apply our selves to God and desire again to bind our Bond the Duty will be comfortable to us Secondly Our second general work is to revive afresh the hopes of eternal Life and to get our taste and relishes of that blessed Estate renewed and confirmed upon our hearts that we may be fortified against the troubles of the World and inconveniencies of our Pilgrimage that we may not only be encouraged to do well but to suffer evil with patience That this Duty is a Pledge of Heaven appeareth by Christs words Mat. 26.29 I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Fathers kingdom It is an Antepast of that blessed and eternal Feast When we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven Mat. 8.11 And the end of both Sacraments is to prepare us for sufferings Mat. 20.22 23. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with They say unto him We are able And he saith unto them Ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with These terms shew that the Sacraments imply a preparation for sufferings for there seemeth to be a plain allusion to both Sacraments drinking of his Cup and being baptized with his Baptism Now counterballasting our Troubles with our Hopes begets the true Spirit of Christian Courage and Fortitude Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us 2 Cor. 4.17 For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Therefore here is your work mind it and God will bless you SERMON XXIV ROM VI. 23 For the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Iesus Christ our Lord. THESE words are the Conclusion confirming all that the Apostle had said before in this Argument and more especially explaining those two Clauses That the end of sin is death and the end of holiness is eternal life it is so but with this difference the one as Wages deserved the other as a meer free Gift Death follows sin by Justice but eternal Life follows Holiness by free favour Both branches deserve to be considered by us conjunctly and apart 1. Conjunctly and there we shall see wherein they agree and wherein they disagree 1. Wherein they agree 1. They agree in respect of their Duration and Continuance the Death and the Life are both endless Mat. 25.46 These shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternal 2. As they are the final issue of â—ens several ways the one as well as the other is the fruit of mens foregoing course here upon Earth Sin is punished by Death and Holiness rewarded by eternal Life Gal. 6.8 For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting 3. They agree in this that both are equally certain for they depend upon Gods unalterable Truth he will punish the disobedient as surely as he doth reward the godly We must not fancy a God all mercy and sweetness he is a God of Salvation but he will wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses Psal. 68.21 The same Truth and Veracity of God that confirmeth his Promises doth also infer the certainty of his Threatnings Psal. 11.6 7. Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous God loveth righteousness his countenance doth behold the upright God is a perfect Judge and will take order in due time with the wicked who break his Laws and will not make use of his Mercy their destruction shall be terrible irresistible and remediless but his upright Servants shall certainly reap the fruits of his Love and their own Obedience 2. Wherein they disagree The Text telleth you the one is Wages and the other a Gift God doth not punish men beyond their deserts that is Justice but he doth reward men above their deserts that is Grace therefore he varieth the word concerning sin it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wages which alludeth either to the hire due to the Labourer or the Pay due to the Souldier both are a just debt the Labourer is worthy of his hire when his work is ended he receives his wages and Souldiers at the end of their service get their Pay But of the other he faith it is the gift of God Sin deserveth Hell and therefore Death is called Wages but if eternal Life might in any fort be deserved or merited the Apostle would not have changed his word as he expresly doth he doth not say Eternal Life is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Wages nay he doth not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reward which sometimes expresseth the Recompence of the Faithful as Heb. 11.26 Having respect to the recompence of reward but because reward doth not always signifie a reward of free bounty he doth not use that word neither yea neither doth he use the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies a Gift because one kindness doth deserve another but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gracious Gift the Vulgar renders it Gratia Dei 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace signifieth the free favour of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the impression or effect of it upon us this is a word inconsistent with all conceit of merit But what is the reason of this difference that the one should be Wages the other a gracious Gift First Our evil works are our own wholly evil therefore merit death as work doth wages but the good we do is neither ours nor is it perfect and is done by them that have a demerit upon them that have deserved the contrary by reason of sin and might look for punishment rather than reward Secondly There is this difference between sin and obedience that the hainousness of sin is always aggravated and heightened by the proportion of its object as to strike an Officer is more than to strike a private person a Judge more than an ordinary Officer a King most of all Thence it comes to pass that a sin committed against God deserveth an infinite punishment because the Majesty of God is despised but on
spiritual but I am carnal sold under sin Rom. 7.14 By the law of nations Service was brought in by conquest and those that were taken in War were vendati sub Hasta sold under a speer merely at the dispose of him that took them 2 Pet. 2.19 They are servants of corruption for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into bondage This our service under sin is in part represented by a Captive in regard we cannot rid our selves of it in part by an hired servant because we willingly and by our own default run into it This impotency is most sensible in them that are convinced of better but do that which is worse they see their duty but are not able to perform it being overcome by their lusts they have some kind of remorse and trouble but cannot help themselves But how came this servitude upon us Partly by the natural inclination of our own corrupt hearts There are servi natura Fools and brutish Men so in a spiritual sense are all men Gen. 3.31 The imaginations of mans heart are evil from his youth 2 ly 'T is increased by custom in sinning these lusts are not only born with us but bred up with us and so plead prescription because Religion cometh afterwards Jer. 13.23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil 'T is hard to shake off inveterate customs strict education tho it changeth not the heart hindreth the growth of sin 3 ly Example doth strengthen and increase it Eph. 2.3 Among whom we also had our conversations in times past in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind and were by nature children of wrath even as others and Isa. 6.5 I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips 4. By the Devils craft who observeth our tempers and inclinations who suiteth every distemper with a diet proper 2 Tim. 2.26 That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the Devil who are taken captive by him at his will Now this is our bondage till we change Masters and devote and give up our selves to God 2. By nature men are under the power of sin and so by consequence under the sentence of death for sin and death go hand in hand These two cannot be put asunder being joined together by the ordination of Gods righteous Law if sin rule in us 't will certainly damn us for none are freed from the damning power of sin but those that are freed from the dominion of it the same law that convinceth of sin doth also bind over to death sin and death suit together like work and wages Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death To affect you while we are explaining this matter consider Three things 1. The suitableness of death to sin 2. The certainty of it 3. The terribleness of this death 1. The suitableness or correspondence that is between sin and death This suitableness will appear if we consider the Wisdom Justice and Holiness of God 1. The Wisdom of God which doth all things according to Weight Measure and Order cannot permit the disjunction of these two Things so closely united together as sin and punishment but there will be an appearance of deformity and incongruity if there be such things as good and evil bonum malum morale as he is unworthy of the name not only of a Christian but a man that denieth it Again if there be such a thing as pleasure and pain joy and sorrow as the sense telleth us or that which we call bonum malum naturale natural good and natural evil Then 't is very agreeable to the Wisdom of God that these things should be rightly placed and sorted that a moral evil which is sin should be punished with a natural evil which is pain and misery and moral good which is Vertue should end in joy and pleasure or in short that there should be rewards and punishments God is naturally inclined as the Creator of mankind to mankind to make his Creature good and happy if nothing hinder him from it if there be no impediment in the way From hence we may see how incongruous it is to the Wisdom of God who permitteth no dissonancy or disproportion in any of his dispensations to admit a separation of these natural relatives if there were no other Testimony of this yet the dispositions of our own hearts would evince it for there we have some obscure shadows of the properties which are in God we compassionate a miserable man who is made so by the iniquity of the times and we esteem him not deserving his misery And we are moved with indignation against one who by evil arts is fortunate and successful but altogether unworthy of â—he happiness which falleth to his share which is an apparent proof that men are sensible of an excellent Harmony and natural order which is between these two things Vertue and Felicity Sin and Misery and to see them so suited doth exceedingly please us Now this sheweth how fitly these two couples are joined sin and death Grace and Life 2. Let us consider the Justice of God as the Judg of the world and so must and will do right Gen. 18.25 Shall not the judg of all the earth do right It belongeth to his general justice that it be well with them that do well and ill with them that do evil God is readily inclined to provide happiness for man who is his creature if there were no sin to stop the course of his bounty and if sin had not entred into the world there had been nothing but happiness in the world but when sin entred into the world death presently trod upon the heels of it Rom. 5.12 As by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin so death passed upon all even for that all have sinned Now men are of different sorts some recover out of the common Apostacy and their cursed estate by sin and live holily others wallow in their filthiness still Therefore it is agreeable to Gods general justice to execute vengeance on the one and to reward the other at least the punishment is just Rom. 2.9 10. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every one that worketh good So that the Justice of God maketh an inseparable connexion between Sin and Death 3. Let us consider the Purity and Holiness of God which inclineth him to hate evil and love that which is good the first we are most concerned to prove Psal. 5.5 The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity But the other is true also the upright are his delight Prov. 11.20 Well then if God loveth good and hateth evil he will one way or other express his love and hatred this he doth by
of condemnation to Death if you be not sensible of the evil and burden of Sin yet surely you should flee from wrath to come Is that a slight matter to you our first and quickest sense is of wrath when our hearts are made more tender we feel the burden of sin fear worketh before shame and sorrow Therefore surely he that considereth his deep necessity should cry our Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7.24 2. Consider the possibility of your delivery from this bondage by the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus Surely the Blood of Jesus can purge your consciences from dead works that you may serve the living God Heb. 9.14 There is a Covenant all the promises of which in Christ are Yea and Amen 2 Cor. 1.23 The Covenant of night and day may sooner be dissolved than this Covenant broken or repealed There is the Spirit also who can subdue your strongest lusts and is ready to help you to mortifie the deeds of the body and to reclaim you from your vain pleasures 3. How comfortable it will be for you when once this work is in progress and you begin to pass from Death to Life every step will be sweet to you and as you grow in grace you do apace advance to Heaven Prov. 3.17 All her ways are pleasantness and all her paths are peace 2 Vse Let us examine whether we have received this regenerating grace to free us from the reign of sin Some are free in shew but others are free indeed John 8.36 Some have the outward badges of Liberty are Christians in name receive Sacraments and enjoy the Ordinances but not the grace in and by the Ordinances You may know the state of your service by the course of your life are you as ready to do any thing for God as before for sin Rom. 6.18 3 d Vse If we be free let us not return to our old slavery again Gal. 5.1 Stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ hath made you free and be not intangled again in the yoke of bondage Especially that chief part of freedom from the dominion of sin Rom. 6.12 Let not sin reign in your mortal bodies that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof And the 14 verse For sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace SERMON IV. ROM VIII 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh HERE the Apostle explaineth himself and sheweth how the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus doth make us free from the law of sin and death In the words observe three things 1. The deep necessity of mankind For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh. 2. The means of our deliverance or Gods merciful provision for our relief The means are two First Christs incarnation Secondly His Passion 1. His incarnation in these Words and God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh 2. His Passion and for sin or by a Sacrifice for Sin 3. The end or benefit accruing to us thereby Condemned Sinint he Flesh. Doct. from the whole That when man could by no means be freed from Sin and Death God sent his Son to be a sacrifice for sin that our liberty might be fully accomplished The Apostles method is best I shall therefore follow that 1. The deep necessity of mankind is argued and made out by this reason That it was impossible for the Law to do away Sin and justifie man before God so he saith For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh That is through the corruption of our natures we being Sinners and unable to perform the Duty of the Law To understand the force of this reason take these considerations 1. That it was necessary in respect of Gods purpose and decree that we should be freed from Sin and Death For God would not have mankind utterly to perish having chosen some to Salvation and Repentance and so leaving others without excuse therefore the strict Judgment of the Law is debated upon this Argument Psal. 143.2 Enter not into judgment with thy servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no man living be justified And again Psal. 130.3 If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity Lord who shall stand According to the first Covenant none can escape Condemnation now this consisted not with the purposes of the Lords Grace who would not lose the whole Creation of mankind God hath shewed himself placable and merciful to all men and hath forbidden despair and continued many forfeited mercies and did not presently upon Sinning put us in our everlasting estate as he did the fallen Angels but rather is upon a Treaty with us 2. God resolving to restore and recover some of mankind it must be by the old way of the Law or by some other course The old way of the Law claimeth the first respect and precedence of consideration for take away Christ and the Gospel nothing more divine and perfect was given to man than the Law this was first intended by God for that end as the Scriptures every where witness and God will not depart from his own institutions without evident necessity for he doth nothing in vain or without necessary cause and reason Gal. 3.21 If there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness had been by the Law God would have gone no further than his first transaction with man Again 't is said Gal. 2.21 If righteousness had been by the Law then Christ is dead in vain If there had been any other way possible in Heaven or in earth than the death of Christ by which the salvation of lost sinners could have been brought about Christ would not have died no our disease was desperate as to any other way of cure before this great Physitian took our case in hand Christ is of no use till our wound be found incurable and all other help in vain 3. The Law coming first into consideration as our remedy its impossibility to justifie and give life needs to be sufficiently demonstrated for till we are dead to the law we shall but carelesly seek after the Grace of God in Jesâ—s Christ therefore doth the Scripture travel so much in this point and sheweth us we must not only be dead to sin and dead to the world but dead to the law before we can live unto God Gal. 2.19 I through the law am dead to the law that I may live unto God and again Rom. 7.4 Ye are become dead to the law by the body of Christ that ye may be married to another even to him that was raised from the dead that ye may bring forth fruit to God These two places shew the means how we become dead
wicked yet it doth not lye idle he can deal with us cominus and eminus at a distance and near at hand he is whetting his sword and bending his bow if he fall upon us what shall we do if a spark of his wrath light upon the conscience how soon is man made a burden to himself Psal. 2.12 much more when he stirreth up all his wrath against us What shall we do First Accept of the conditions of peace God hath provided 2 Cor. 5.19 20. to wit That God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses to them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now then we are ambassadors of Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God We read of Princes that Luke 14.31 while their enemy is yet a great way off they send an Embassy and desire conditions of peace God sendeth the Embassy to us let us accept of the offer we are no match for God Scondly Get corrupt nature healed and the heart renewed by the spirit for there is no peace as long as the old heart remaineth when renewed we are reconciled we receive the atonement if God sanctifieth he is a God of peace Be once after the spirit and then you will be spiritually minded and to one that is spiritually minded there is life and peace 2. The next thing is our impotency to recover our selves out of this estate for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be Hence observe Doct. That while we remain carnally minded there is no breaking off this enmity between God and us The reasons of this repugnancy or why the carnal mind standeth in such direct opposition to the Law are 1. The law is spiritual and we are carnal sold under sin Rom. 7.14 Men in an habitual state of carnality cannot obey a spiritual law 2. The law is pure and holy Psal. 119.140 Thy law is very pure therefore thy servant loveth it but it is otherwise with fleshly creatures impuritas est mixtura vilioris 3. The Law is directly contrary to the fleshly mind and therefore the fleshly mind is directly contrary to it The Law of God forbiddeth many things that are pleasing to carnal nature as all excess of bodily pleasures inordinate seeking after the prosits and honours of the World commandeth many things tedious to flesh and blood as the loving God with all our hearts serving him with all our might and strength loving Enemies doing good to all seeking others welfare as our own Secondly Besides its repugnancy there is an utter incapacity But may it not be brought to obedience by the Law demanding its right and due in the Name of God 1. Not by a bare prohibition for that exasperateth the evil Rom. 7.5 For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the law did work in my members to bring forth fruit unto death 2. Not by perswasions or instructions for spiritual arguments work little with a carnal heart perswasion alone prevaileth not against inclination 1 Cor. 2.14 For the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God 3. Nor will Resolutions Vows and Covenants make us subject for these are but the Dictates of Conscience till the Will be renewed 'T is our Judgment we should but the bent of our hearts lieth as a weight against it Rom. 2.18 Thou approvest the things that are excellent being instructed out of the law VSE is Information Since the unregenerate are altogether Flesh and the regenerate in part flesh the one can do nothing good the other nothing perfect 1. It giveth us a true account of mans natural incapicity to what is good First there is a natural propensity or inclination to the body before the soul and Earth before Heaven the creature before God John 3.6 That which is born of flesh is flesh 2. This is increased in us by being accustomed to a sinful life Jer. 13.13 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil 3. This custom is more confirmed and rooted by the general practice of all about us Isa. 6.5 Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips 4. 'T is not only practised but countenanced generally in the world 1 Pet. 4.4 Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them into the same excess of riot 5. The incouragements of another course lye wholly in a World to come Matth. 5.12 Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven 6. The Precepts to renounce this sensuality are given by an Invisible God Who tho he hath given sufficient demonstration of the truth of his being is little cared for Psal. 10.4 The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God God is not in all his thoughts SERMON X. ROM VIII 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God THIS Verse is Consectary from the whole Discourse especially from the former Verse They who are in the flesh are professed Enemies to God and therefore they cannot please him In the Words here are two Things 1. The Persons spoken of 2. What is said of them 1. The Persons spoken of They that are in the flesh that is who are unregenerate in the state of corrupt Nature he saith not if the flesh be in you ye cannot please God but if you be in the flesh that is in a carnal state As to be in the faith 2 Cor. 13.5 implieth being in a Gospel-state and to be in Christ Rom. 8.1 noteth a state of true Christianity so to be in the flesh is to be under the dominion and power of the flesh so as to serve the lusts and passions thereof during this carnal and corrupt estate till men are converted and changed they cannot please God 2. What is said of them They cannot please God Which may be interpreted two Ways quoad conatum vel quoad eventum first with respect to their endeavour they will not frame their doings nor make this their business and scope to please the Lord as 't is said of the Jews that rigorously kept up the ritual Observances of the law 1 Thes. 2.15 They please not God and are contrary to all men They were as far from fulfilling the true meaning of the law as they were from observing the Gospel and all men as long as their lusts are untamed and unbroken they cannot do those things which are pleasing in his sight Secondly With respect to Gods acceptance and favour they are not accepted with him so as to obtain Life and Peace and be exempted from Condemnation Doct. Carnal men do not cannot please God To prove this I shall lay down some Propositions 1. That it is mans duty and happiness to please God For this end
in the way of worldliness all their toiling and excessive care and pains are for the worldly life in short they follow after earthly things with greatest earnestness and spiritual things in an overly formal and careless manner A carnal man may do many things in Religion which are good and worthy Man that hath an Appetite hath also a conscience tho the flesh is importunate to be pleased and unwilling to be crossed that it giveth way to a little superficial duty that conscience may be pacified and so its self may be pleased with the less disturbance Religion is but taken on as a matter by the by as you give way to a servant to go upon his own errand Nay sometimes the flesh doth not only give leave but it sets them a work to hide a lust or feed a lust to hide a lust from the world as in Hypocrites as the Pharisees made their worship serve their rapine Matth. 3.14 Or from their own consciences every man must have some Religion therefore the flesh alloweth a few services that it may the more securely possess the heart 't is not for the interest of the flesh to have too much Religion nor none at all the carnal life must have some devotion to cover iâ— that men may take courage in sin the more freely Or feed a lust pride or vain-glory may put men on preaching or praying before others Phil. 1.16 17. The one preacâ—eth Christ out of contention Or give alms Matth 6.1 take heed that you do not your alms before men to be seen of men and a sacrifice may be brought with an evil mind Prov. 21.27 The devil careth not what means we use so he may have his ends that is to keep men in a carnal condition 3. That make it their scope end and happiness That is our scope and end that solaceth our minds and sweetneth our labours that which they aim at is to be rich and great in the world or enjoy their pleasure without remorse Phil. 3.19 Whose end is destruction whose God is their belly they mind earthly things That is our God which lieth next our hearts to which we offer our actions and from which we fetch our inward complacency be it the pleasing of the flesh or being accepted with God all their delight and contentment is to have the flesh pleased in some worldly thing this giveth them a joy and rest of mind and quencheth all sentiments of Religion and delight in God they that aim at Pardon Grace and Glory no worldly thing will satisfie them God and Heaven are preferred above all the Pleasures Honours and Profits they can enjoy here Psal. 4.7 Thou hast put gladness into my heart more than at the time when their corn and wine increased But 't is otherwise with the carnal for their hearts run out more pleasingly after some worldly thing and when they obtain it it keepeth them quiet under the guilt of wilful sin and all their soul-dangers and forget eternity because they have their hearts desire already Luke 12.19 20. And I will say to my soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease eat drink and be merry but God said unto him Thou fool this night thy soul shall be required of thee then whose shall these things be thou hast provided And the peace and pleasure which they dayly live upon is fetched more from the World than from God and Christ and Heaven the flesh is at ease and hath nothing to disturb it and they designed the conveniencies of the flesh in their whole lives this is their principle their chief scope and aim whatsoever he doth he still designeth the contentment of the flesh or some temporal good that shall accrue to him Thus you see who live after the flesh Where no contrary principle is set up to check it where 't is our daily work to please the flesh and our great scope and solace to have it pleased 3. What is this death that is here threatned ye shall dye Surely the natural death is not intended for that is common to all both to those that please the flesh and those that crucifie the flesh Heb. 9.27 'T is appointed for all men once to die And besides to the godly it is matter of comfort a thing which they should rather desire than fear 1 Cor. 3.22 Death is theirs therefore death is but a softer word for eternal damnation yet used with good Reason the Apostle saith Ye shall die rather than ye shall be damned first because death to the wicked is an inlet to their final and eternal misery 'T is dreadful to them not only as a natural evil as it puts an end to their worldly comforts but as a penal evil Heb. 2.14 15. Who are all their life time subject to bondage through fear of death because of the consequences of it then their torment beginneth Secondly because 't is more liable to sense We know hell by faith and death by sense now that notion that is more known affects us more all abhor death as a fearful thing Briefly then this death consists not in an extinction and abolition of the creature but in a deprivation of the favour and presence of the blessed God who is the fountain of all comfort and the everlasting pains and torments which the soul and body being cast out of Gods presence feeleth in hell all that weeping and gâ—ashing of teeth that bitter remembrance of what is past the acute sense of what is present that despair and fearful looking for of the fiery indignation of the Lord what the Scripture speaketh of 't is all included in this word ye shall die 't is in short to be separated from God and Christ and the Saints and Angels and to have eternal fellowship with Devils and damned Spirits together with those unknown pains inflicted on us by the Wrath of God in the other world 3. It would not be sufficient to restrain men from sin if God should only threaten temporal death and not eternal every murtherer would venture to execute his maliee every adulterer follow his lusts and voluptuous man his swinish and brutish pleasure if it were only to endure a short pain at death and then be free from misery for ever after We see how offenders venture on mans punishment and how many shorten their days for their vain pleasure therefore unless the death were everlasting the world would be little awed by it unless the bitterness be greater than the present sinful pleasure therefore eternal torment is that which God threatneth and will surely execute on the sensual and carnal so that the sinner hath no hope to escape unless by repentance and breaking this course of living after the flesh Secondly Now by way of Confirmation We must shew the fit Connexion between these Two Things the carnal living and this terrible Death and there we must shew you 1. That this threatning is every way consistent with the Justice and Wisdom
transgressions which he hath committed he shall live and not die The one is removed the other asserted the one is the wages of sin the other the fruit of Gods Mercy and free Gift death we naturally abhor and life we naturally love therefore the one is threatned the other promised 2. To prove it by reasons 1. If we partake with Christ in one act we shall share with him in all If dead with him we shall live with him Rom. 6.8 If we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall live with him That is if we imitate Christ in his Death then we have sure grounds of believing that after his example we shall have a joyful Resurrection to eternal life he had said before v. 5. If we be planted into the likeness of his Resurrection That is be first raised from the death of sin to the Life of Grace and then the Life of Grace shall be swallowed up in the Life of Glory 2. The mortified soul is prepared to enjoy the heavenly life as being weaned from worldly and sensual delights Col. 1.12 Who hath made us meet to be partakers of the Saints in light There is a double meetness first a meetness in point of right secondly a meetness in point of congruity and preparation of heart the one respects Gods Appointment those who are qualified according to the Covenant the other the suitableness of our affections 1. They are in respect of God deemed meet and worthy whom God vouchsafeth to account worthy Thus he doth the mortified as we proved before he then that would live when he is dead must die when he is alive 2. Preparation of heart Heaven would be a burden to a carnal heart that hath no delight in Communion with God or the company of the Saints or an holy life What would he do with Heaven A Turkish Paradise would suit better with such sensual and brutish souls now those who are dead to the flesh and the world do the better relish those things which are heavenly 'T is not their trouble but their happiness they have the consummation of their hopes and aims 3. They desire this life and groan and wait for it Which desires groans and longings being stirred up in them by Gods Spirit will not be in vain They cannot be satisfied with the Wealth Pleasures and Honours of the World they must enjoy something beyond all these things and that is God and here they enjoy him but imperfectly The more the flesh is mortified our desires to love know and enjoy God are more kindled in us Now by this these are marked out as heirs of promise for God infuseth the desire that they may be satisfied and where they are laborious they will certainly be satisfied for otherwise God would intice us to the pursuit of an happiness which he never meaneth to give 4. God promiseth it to the mortified the more to sweeten the duty Those that think it is easie to forsake sin never tried it Mortification is of an harsh sound in a carnal ear to contradict our carnal desires and displease the flesh which is so near and dear to us will not easily down with us God might exact it out of Soveraignty but he propoundeth rewards If we must pass thorough a streight gate and narrow way it leadeth unto life Matth. 7.14 Sin is such a disorderly thing and doth so invert the course of a rational nature that we should part with it by any means but especially when the case is so stated that we must live or die for ever This motive should work upon us because of our Desires and Fears 1. Our desiâ—es Corrupt nature will teach us to love our selves and so to desire happiness which we cannot enjoy if we live not for the dead are neither capable of happiness nor misery tho we are unwilling to deny the flesh or renounce the Credit Profit or Pleasure of sin or grow dead to the world or worldly things yet we are willing enough of life and happiness therefore God promiseth that we desire that we may submit to those things which we are against as we sweeten bitter Pills to Children that they may swallow them down the better they love the Sugar tho they loathe the Aloes So God would invite us to our duty by our interest if Mortification be an unpleasing task it conduceth to our life Prov. 8.35 36. He that findeth me findeth life saith Wisdom and he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul and he that hateth me loveth death Who would be so unnatural as to wrong his own soul To murder himself to court his own death and destruction 'T is not only against the Dictates of Grace but the desires of Nature There is nothing can be supposed to enfeeble this Argument but these Two things 1. Mens vehement addictedness to their carnal courses that they will rather die than part with them 2. That this life which the Promises of the Gospel offer is an unknown thing it being to be injoyed in the other world Both are truths yet the Motive is still forcible 1. How addicted soever men are to any outward thing yet to preserve life they will deny themselves Job 2.4 Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life It was a truth tho it came out of the Devils Mouth Nothing is so dear to a man as his own life men will spend all that they have upon the Physitian to recover their health Luke 8.43 Yea they will hazzard the members of their own body cut off a Leg or an Arm for preserving life and shall not we part with a lust to get life Who would sell his precious life at such a cheap rate as the pleasing of a vain and wanton humour 2. But this life which is not a matter of sense but of faith is not likely to be much valued Answer There is some inclination in the heart of man to eternal life nature gropeth and feeleth about for an eternal good and an eternal good in the enjoyment of God Act. 17.27 as blind men do in the dark Tho man by nature lyeth in gross ignorance of the true God as our Lord and Happiness yet the sense of an Immortality is not altogether a stranger to nature such a conceit hath been rooted in the minds of all Nations and Religions not only Greeks and Romans but Barbarians and People least civilized they have thought so and been solicitous of a life after this life Herodotus telleth us that the ancient Goths thought their souls perished not but went to Zamblaxis the Captain of their Colony or Founder of their Nation and Diodorus Siculus of the Egyptians that their Parents and Friends when they died went to some eternal habitation Moderate Heathens when they are asked about Eternal Life and Judgment to come as to Judgment to come they know it not but this thing they know that the condition of men and beasts is different but what their
a lawful and necessary Fear which doth quicken us to our Duty Phil. 2.12 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling and is either the fear of Reverence or the fear of Caution The fear of Reverence is nothing but that awe which we as Creatures are to have of the Divine Majesty or an humble sense of the condition place and duty of a Creature towards its Creator The fear of Caution is a due sense of the importance and weight of the business we are ingaged in in order to our salvation Certainly none can consider the danger we are to escape and the blessedness we aim at but will see a need to be serious and therefore this fear is good and holy Secondly There is besides this a slavish fear which doth not further but extreamly hinder our Work For tho we are to fear God yet we are not to be afraid of God This servile fear may be interpreted either with respect to the Precept or the Sanction of the Law First with respect to the Precept and so it sheweth us how men stand naturally affected to the duty of the Law Whatever they do is meerly for fear of being punished Secondly to the Sanction Penalty and Curse The fear of evil is more powerful upon us than the hope of good The greater the evil the greater the fear and the more tormenting Doct. That men under the Law-Covenant are under a Spirit of Bondage Here I shall enquire 1. What is the Spirit of Bondage 2. How is it the fruit of the Law-Covenant 3. Whether it is good or bad 1. What is the Spirit of Bondage To open it we must explain Three Things The Nature of the Object 2. The Work of the Spirit 3. The Disposition of man 1. The Nature of the Object The Law requiring Duty of the fal'n creature and threatning punishment in case of disobedience For the Law hath a Twofold Office to convince of sin Rom. 3.20 Now by the Law only cometh the knowledg of sin and to bind over to punishment Therefore 't is said The law worketh wrath Rom. 4.15 In both respects the Old Covenant is called the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 The Law as a covenant of Works is called a Law of sin because it only sheweth our sin and a Law of death because it bindeth us over to death 2. The Work of the Spirit Every Truth is quickned by the Spirit and made more powerful upon our hearts The comfort which we have from the Truth of the Gospel is by the Spirit and therefore 't is called Joy in the Holy Ghost So Law-Truths are applied to the conscience by the Spirit Jer. 31.19 After I was instructed I smote upon the thigh and when the commandment came that is in the light and power of the Spirit sin revived and I died Rom. 7.9 That is was made sensible of his sinful and lost condition And indeed the usual Work wherewith the Spirit beginneth with men is to shew them their sin and misery their alienation from God and enmity to him and insufficiency to help themselves 3. The disposition of man which is corrupted under the workings of the Spirit of Bondage And so this Spirit of Bondage or servile Fear worketh several ways according to the Temper of men First in the prophane it giveth occasion of further sinning as conscience being awakened by the Spirit urgeth either the Precept or the Curse the Precept as a Bullock at first yoking groweth more unruly or a River swelleth when it meeteth with a dam and restraint Rom. 7.5 For when we were in the flesh the motions of sin which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Sinful practices were more irritated by the prohibition and so our obligation to death increased or else by urging the Curse which produceth the sottish despair Jer. 18.12 And they said there is no hope we will walk after our devices There is a double despair of pleasing or being accepted There is a lazy sottish despair as well as raging and tormenting despair by which men cast off all care of the Souls welfare There is no hope Secondly in a middle sort of men that have a legal conscience it puts them upon some duty and course of service to God But 't is not done comfortably nor upon any noble motives That which is defective in it is this First 't is constrained service This Bondage which is a fruit of the Law doth force and compel men to some unpleasing Task A Christian serveth God out of love but one under the Spirit of Bondage serveth God out of fear A love to God and true holiness prevaileth with the one more than the fear of wrath and punishment for the Spirit of Adoption disposeth and inclineth him to God as a Father but one under the Spirit of Bondage is forced to submit to some kind of religiousness for fear of being damned Indeed both are constrained the one by love the other by fear 2 Cor. 5.14 only the constraint of love is durable and kindly and sweet the other his Task is grievous and wearisome Mal. 1.11 and holdeth most in a fit when danger is nigh they are frighted into some devotion Psal. 78. from 34 to 38. Secondly That service which they are forced and compelled to yield to God is outward service and obedience Isa. 58.7 hanging the head for a day like a Bulrush and as they do Micah 6.7 offer Thousands of Rams and Ten Thousands of Rivers of Oyl or the first born of their body for the sin of their souls 'T is a Sin-Offering rather than a Thank-Offering more to appease conscience than to please God consists in Rituals rather than Substantials and those invented by men rather than commanded by God Whereas the true Christian is otherwise described Phil. 3.3 For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the fiesh But the false Christian is one Matth. 15.8 that draweth nigh to God with the mouth but their heart is far from him their heart is averse from God tho they must have an outward Religion to rest in and so they serve God not as children do a father but as slaves serve an hard and cruel master Thirdly In some the Lord may make use of it to bring on conversion for according to our sense of sin and misery so is a Saviour and Redeemer welcome to us and prized by us There must be a sensible awakening knowledg of our great necessity before we will make use of Christ for our Cure and Remedy None but the sick will care for the Physitian Matth. 9.12 the burdened for ease Matth. 11.28 29. the pursued for a Sanctuary and Refuge Heb. 6.18 None but the condemned to be justified and acquitted Rom. 8.33 34. the lost and miserable to be saved Luke 19.10 2. How is it the fruit of the law covenant The law covenant is double either the
every evil work 2 Tim. 4.18 Therefore we should submit to endure the evil of chastisement that we may escape the evil of sin 't is worse to be sinful than miserable to be unclean than to be sick to be volupteous than to be poor and so the affliction bringeth greater good than it taketh from you therefore Christians should be careful that they murmur not against Gods dispensations for there are two evils that we bewray thereby 1. A despising of God 2. A despising of holiness And a Christian should be tender of either 1. A despising of God as if he knew not what was fittest and best for you and would send any trouble upon you that he knoweth not how to turn to good Job 34.33 Should it be acording to thy mind he will recompence it whether thou refuse or whether thou chuse Should our condition be at our own disposal and should God ask of us whether we like it or no is it not better to be satisfied in his will and say Surely God would not send this affliction if he did not know how it should be good for me We would carve out our own condition and have our will in every thing but is this wise or just Must God be subject to our passions and affections No whether we will or no he will take his own way 2. 'T is a lessening the value of holiness as if this profit did not countervail our lâ—ss We profess we esteem grace more than wealth and spiritual things more than carnal but when we are put to the tryal we little regard holiness but only mind the ease of the flesh and therefore are so hardly reconciled to the Cross surely that which doth us good should not be entertained with such impatient resentment 't is worse in Christians who are more obliged to count all things dung and dross Phil. 3.7 8 9 10. But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death But we may say as Moses to God Bâ—hold the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me how then shall Pharoah hear me We cannot hope to convince a worldly man of this That loss of estate or poverty is good the ambitious man that 't is good to be despised and contemned and the voluptuous man that pain is sometimes better than ease and sickness that checketh the desires of the flesh is better than health that gratifieth them Alas the children of God are hardly convinced that mortifying affliction is better than carnal prosperity how then will the world believe it 2. What profit is there to be gotten by afflictions 'T is hard to instance in all particulars because God hath several ends in our afflictions according to the distempers that need cure but the usual profit of afflictions is seen in these things 1. That the time of affliction is a serious thinking time 1 Kings 8.47 if they shall bethink themselves in the land of their captivity We have more liberty to retire into ourselves being freed from the attractive allurements of worldly vanities and for the present there is some restraint on the delights of the flesh which use to besot the mind and hinder better thoughts Adversity maketh men serious the Prodigal came to himself when he began to be in want Luke 15.17 Sad objects make a deeper impression on our souâ—s than delightful do they help us to consider our ways and Gods righteous dealings that we may behave ourselves wisely and suitable to the dispensation we are under Eccles. 7.14 in the day of adversity consider See from what hand it cometh to what issue it tendeth what is thy duty under it how little thou canst mend thy self without submitting to God that to hope to escape by ill means is but like an attempt to break prison 't is better to make supplications to our Judg these Providences are not to be lightly passed over the Author of them is God the occasion sin the end repentance 2. 'T is an awakening quickning time Some are awakened out of the sleep of death and are first wrought upon by afflictions this is one powerful means to bring in souls to God and opening their ears to discipline Job 36.10 They had still slept in their sins if God had not awakened them by the smart discipline of the Cross but others are quickned and awakened to more carefulness of their duty more watchfulness against sin and the graces of the spirit which lay dormant in us through neglect are more set a work sense pleasing objects deaden the heart Gods best children sleep when they have a carnal pillow under their heads Psal. 30.6 And in my prosperity I said I shall never be moved But now because they do not stir up themselves God stirreth them up by a smart rod that faith may be working love fervent hope lively prayers carried on with warmth and zeal prayers otherwise are dead thoughts of Heaven cold or none wherein all these graces are acted Isa. 26.16 Lord in trouble they have visited thee they pour out a prayer when thy chastning was upon them And Hosea 5.15 I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early When our gust and tast of spiritual and heavenly things is recovered then we are awakened and in good earnest 3. 'T is a learning time this the Scripture witnesseth every where Psal. 119.71 'T is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes Psal. 94.12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastnest O Lord and teachest him out of thy law God teacheth us though he teach us as Gideon did the men of Succoth with briars and thorns And we read of Christ Jesus himself Heb. 5.8 He learned obedience from the things which he suffered He did experimentally understand what obedience was in hard and difficult cases and so could the better pity and help sinners when they obey God at a dear rate In affliction we have an experimental knowledge of that of which but a notional knowledge before We come by experience to see how false and changeable the world is what a burden sin is What sweetness there is in the promises What a reality in the world to come How comfortable an interest in God is Luther said Qui tribulantur sacras Scripturas melius intelligunt securi fortunati eas legunt sicut Ovidii carmen The afflicted see
naturally to be dreaded and avoided Christ would never have prayed against it 2dly Vpon these terms Death is sweetned to them They readily submit to it as the nature of it is changed And by Christs Death it 's made their friend a passage to an endless Life 1 Cor. 3.22 Rom. 8.38 Death shall not separate from but make way for their full enjoyment of the Love of God in Christ Jesus 2d Obj. But must all sincere Christians thus groan and long Many are so far from groaning and longing to depose this Tabernacle That they groan at the least thought of the dissolution of it Some there are that can venture to die but very few that can desire to die Answ. 1. Somewhat of this there must be in all that believe they all groan in this Tabernacle and desire to be dissolved Paul speaketh in his own name and the name of all who are like minded with himself for no man is unwilling to be happy and attain his end How is it an happiness if it be not to be desired and groaned after How will you vanquish Temptations if you cannot lay down Life and all at Christs feet so you may have the Heavenly Inheritance How can you labour for that which you do not earnestly desire and groan after How can you make good your intire surrender of your self in the Covenant of being and doing what God will have you to do and be Of living to God and dying to God Rom. 14.7 8. at least submit to die and to be ready when God shall call you 2dly Much of what is here expressed may belong to an Heroical degree of grace not vouchsafed to all Christians All cannot attain to this measure and height But yet still we must be growing up to this frame of heart Here are marks to aim at marks to try by The marks to aim at are propounded for our imitation the other are proofs of our sincerity We are every day to grow up more more into such an Heavenly Spirit to humble our selves that after so long a profession of the name of Christ we come short We should take occasions thence to provoke our selves to get the same dispositions and affections which Gods eminent Servants have 3d. Obj. But this wishing and longing for Death seemeth to have somewhat of sin in it Men in a passion and when disappointed in the world seem to be weary of their lives We have instances in Scripture The murmuring of the Israelites in the wilderness Would to God we had died in Aegypt c. Answ. 1. There is a difference between Velleity and a Volition Serious desires and passionate expressions In a pet or passion we wish for many things which really we desire not and are loth God should take us at our words Now the Saints desire to be dissolved and to enjoy another state is quite another thing 2dly There is a difference in the grounds and reasons of both these desires As 1. You ought not to wish for Death in a passion and pet and fit of discontent as Jonah 4.3 Therefore now I beseech thee take my Life from me for 't is better for me to die than live 'T is an impatient wish since he could not get his will Death is the Ordinary refuge of imbittered Spirits and the back door which we seek to get out at through impatience weariness of Life pride and contest with providence nothing will please then bus Death to be rid of all these troubles in a passion pet when you have not something which you would have 'T is meer pride that swelleth the Heart with discontent wishing our selves out of that Condition God hath put us into Now thus the Saints do not desire Death because they cannot have their full of worldly injoyments or meet with many Crosses and disappointments here These are carnal grounds 2dly Deep sorrow or some sharp affliction or difficulty that we meet with in our callings as Elijah 1 King 19.4 requested for himself that he might die 3dly From peevish doating Love as David 2 Sam. 48.33 O Absolon my Son my Son my Son would to God I had died for thee But Affirmatively what are the grounds of the Saints regular groaning and desires 1. An Heart dead to the world and weaned from the pleasures honours and profits thereof and firmly fixed upon Heavenly things As in the Text this better House longing for the time when our Souls shall be freed from sin and enlarged for the perfect Love of God our Bodies Fashioned like unto Christs Glorious Body Phil. 3.20 21. When we shall live with Angels and glorified Saints when we shall see Christ as he is and be like him and behold God face to face These things draw forth their desires 2dly Some competent assurance of the Love of God in Christ We that know we have an House Eternal in the Heavens we groan 3dly Love to Christ Phil. 1.23 A panting after a nearer union and more intimate fellowship with him Love cannot endure the absence of the beloved They would be filled up with the feeling of his Love and abound with Love to him again and delight themselves in his immediate presence 3dly There is a difference in the manner 'T is with resignation and submission to Gods will Phil. 1.24 Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you as long as God hath service for them to do For we must not seek our own contentment in dying or living but absolutely submit to the will of God Well then these desires and groans after happiness are quite different from the passionate wishes that drop from us sometimes They that give way to them do not desire Death as a release from sin nor as a Chariot to convey us to the place where we would be with God for ever But out of some present imagined and real bitterness They fly to Heaven as their retreat or reserve for the present 1. Use is Information 1. It shews us what an argument we have that there is a better estate provided for us hereafter Because the people of God are groaning and earnestly desiring as unsatisfied with their present Condition We are now like fish in a Pail or small Vessel of water which will only keep us alive we would fain be in the Ocean surely then there is an happiness provided for us in the other World How doth this prove it 1. The disposition and instinct of nature towards happiness in general yea eternal happiness is an argument much more the desires of the Saints All men would be happy Man's Soul is a Chaos of desires like a spunge it 's thirsty and seeketh to fill its self Psal. 4.6 There be many that say Who will shew us any good Yea an Eternal happiness They grope about after God Acts 17.26 as the Blind Sodomites about Lot's Door The Soul of man cannot be satisfied here our sore still runneth upon us This being the constant universal disposition of nature sheweth
condemned by the world But how shall Wisdom be justified by us Answ. 1. By disclaiming and renouncing them who Adopt Fooleries into their Religion and betray it to the scorn of all considering men In this class and rank I put the Papists and the Quakers The first by a Pageantry of many ridiculous Ceremonies have so disguised the Christian Religion that it is made Contemptible Therefore is it that where this Religion hath most absolutely commanded Atheism aboundeth for the heart of a rational man can find no satisfaction in these things nothing of the Majesty of God and the power of his Ordinances where they are made so sense-pleasing and accommodated with such worldly Pomp and silly Rudiments which can only prevail upon the weaker sort of Spirits The more knowing and searching wits cannot but secretly scorn those things in their hearts and therefore no other Religion being allowed and countenanced they lie under a dangerous Temptation to Atheism and Unbelief The other sort are the Quakers a sort of People whose Principles are not yet fixed but in the forming being of a vertiginous spirit are a ready prey for Sathan and fit instruments for him to work by to the great disturbance of Religion or to disgrace and shame it and betray it to scorn Now the main of what their Religion hitherto hath been is to teach men to cast away their Bands and their Cuffs and the trimmings of their Garments and to deny Civilities and to teach men to say thou these make Religion ridiculous and prostitute Scripture phrase to scorn and by them the way of truth is evil spoken of 2. By pleading for it Surely Godliness is not madness but the highest Wisdom This Argument will clear it Wisdom lieth in the fixing of a right end and the choice of apt and good means and a dexterous pursuit of these means These things are evident to reason Now in all these respects there is not a wiser man than a godly man and the more godly he is the more he excelleth in Wisdom And therefore folly and madness can no more be ascribed to godliness than heat to the Snow or cold to the fire 1. He fixeth upon an higher end than all the rest of the world doth which is the pleasing glorifying injoying God Alas what 's the heaping up of wealth the getting of a little honour or designing to wallow in ease and pleasure as to these things He is wiser that is wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3.16 That chooseth God for his portion God hath given him counsel in his Reins All the Wisdom of the world is Earthly Sensual and Devilish Jam. 1.3 Others are Foolish and Madmen Who are wiser They that run after painted Butterflies or spend their time in making Clay-pies like Children or sucking at the dry Breast of the Creature or those who are able to govern Commonwealths or do things for publick good Who are wiser They that can pass by their worldly designs to carry on their Heavenly Or they that are wise for the present and Fools to all Eternity 2. He chuseth apt and sit means He takes not an uncertain course in the world but goeth by the certain rule of Gods Word Deut. 4.6 Keep them and do them for this is your Wisdom Jer. 8.9 They have rejected the Word of the Lord and what Wisdom is in them And the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the simple Psal. 19.7 The more a man keepeth to the Word of the Lord the more wise and as far as he abateth he sheweth foâ—ly and madness as others do 3. For diligent pursuit being heedful Eph 5.15 See then that ye walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise Avoiding what may be a snare they are true to their end by being serious and diligent Eccl. 10.2 A wise mans heart is at his right hand by self denyal spareth no cost selleth all for the Pearl of great Price Matth. 13. Though to despise the Delights and Honours and Pleasures of the world seemeth the greatest folly and madness to Carnal men Nothing venture nothing have Rom. 8.6 To be Carnally minded is death and to be Spiritually minded is life and peace He loseth something but getteth much better If a man should keep his money by him and neglect a gainful purchase that would yield him an hundred fold this would be accounted folly among worldly wise men what is their course who venture death and eternal Destruction rather than be at the pains to save their Souls 3. Let us wipe off â—his reproach by our Conversations Not by abating our zeal and diligence in the Heavenly life but by a prudent behaviour giving no occasion by any ridiculous actions of ours to blemish the Holy Profession I 'le urge but this one Argument that a Christian is to shew forth the vertues of God or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 praises of God 1 Pet. 2.9 as an Image is to represent the Party Now the vertues of God are chiefly three Wisdom Power and Goodness A Christian is to shew forth Gods Power by his reverence and awfulness not daring to do any thing that God hath forbidden His Goodness of benignity by his delight and readiness of obedience as his beneficial goodness so his moral Goodness by our Holiness 1 Pet. 1.16 Be ye holy for I am holy So also his Wisdom we shew he is Wise by whose Counsel we are guided and wait on God for the direction of his Word and the Spirit will help you to do it Jam. 1.5 If any man lack wisdom let him ask it of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth no man Use 3. Is Caution to Carnal men Let them forbear the censures of the Godly and study their own case we charge them with madness and folly not to upbraid them but to convince them not out of Malice as they do but compassion that they may repent and grow wise to Salvation Repentance is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a returning to our wits again What is that 1. When you begin to be serious When the Conversion of the Gentiles to the Christian Faith is Prophesied of 't is said Psalm 22.27 All the ends of the Earth shall remember and turn to the Lord. As long as men are thoughtless and mindless of Heavenly things they know not what they do but are as men sleeping and distracted not making use of the common light of Reason or those Principles which are ingrafted into the hearts of all men What am I Who made me What do all these Creatures proclaim all that I can see and feel but an Eternal Power Have I any Interest in him Alas they went on madly before sleeping in the lap of Carnal Pleasures when the Philistines were upon them or else plunging themselves in a gulph of business and worldly distractions and there they lie in the deep waters till they be ready to sink to the bottom Oh remember and return you are undone for ever if you do not escape out
bringeth forth sin Jam. 1.15 It hath produced its consummate act and discovered its self to the full 3. It bendeth and inclineth the heart to the thing loved Amor meus est pondus meum 〈◊〉 feror quocunque feror 'T is the vigorous bent of the Soul and it so bendeth and inclineth the Soul to the thing loved that it is fastened to it and cannot easily be separated from it We are brought under the power of what we love as the Apostle speaketh of the Creatures 1 Cor. 6.12 But I will not be brought under the power of any 'T is deaf to counsel in its measure 't is true of our love to Christ if we love him we will cleave to him A man is dispossessed of himself that hath lost the Dominion of himself as Sampson like a Child led by Dalilah So is a man ruled and governed by his love to Christ. 4. To a most kindly principle to do a thing for another out of love What is done out of love is not done out of slavish compulsion but good will Not an act of necessity but choice 1 John 5.3 This is love that we keep his Commandments and his Commandments are not grievous That 's bad ground that bringeth forth nothing unless it be forced Natural Conscience worketh by fear but Faith by love Love is not compelled but it worketh of it self sweetly kindly it taketh off all irksomness lessens difficulties facilitates all things and maketh them light and easie So as we serve God cheerfully Where love prevaileth let it be never so difficult it seemeth light and easie Seven years for Rachel seemed to Jacob as nothing made him bear the heat of the day and cold of the night Gen. 29.10 But where love is wanting all that is done seemeth too much 5. 'T is a most forcible compelling principle non persuadet sed cogit one glosseth the Text so It cometh with commanding intreaties reasoneth in such a powerful prevailing manner as it will have no denyal Titus 2.11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lâ—sts we should live soberly righteously and godly in the present World Nothing will 〈◊〉 your hearts to your work so much as love Lay what bands you will upon your selves if a temptation cometh you will break them as Sampson did his cords wherewith he was bound Promises Vows Covenants Resolutions former experiences of comfort when put to tryal all is as nothing to love But now let a mans love be gained to Christ that 's band enough quis legem dat amantibus major lex amor sibi est Love so far as love needeth no Penalties nor Laws nor Enforcements for it is a great Law to its self it hath within its bosom as deep obligations and ingagements to any thing that may please God as you can put upon it Indeed if there were not an opposite principle of averâ—eness this were enough but I speak of love as love fear and terror is a kind of external impulse that may drive a Soul to a duty but the inward impulse is love that will influence and over-rule the Soul and ingage it to please Christ if it beareth any mastery there 6. 'T is laborious it requireth great diligence to be faithful with Christ. Now love is that disposition which puts us upon labours this if any thing will keep a man to his work Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love And 1 Thes 1.3 Remembring without ceasing your work of Faith and labour of Love 'T is not an affection that can lye bashful and idle in the Soul So Revel 2.4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Till love be lost our first works are never left Our â—ord when he had work for Peter to do gageth his heart John 21.15 Simon Peter lovest thou me Love sets all a going 7. It dilateth and inlargeth the heart and so 't is liberal to the thing loved I will praise him yet more and more I will not serve the Lord with that which cost me nothing Other things will not go to the charge of obedience to God It will be at some cost for God and Christ and maketh us obey God against our own interest and carnal inclination It was against the hair but the young man deferred not to do the thing because he delighted in Jacobs Daughter Gen. 34 19. 8. 'T is an invincible and unconquerable affection Cant. 8.6 Love is strong as death â—ealousy is cruel as the grave The coals thereof are as the coals of fire which hath a most vehement flame Many waters cannot quench love Neither can the floods drown it if a man would give all the substance of his house for love it would utterly be contemned There is a vehemency and an unconquerable constancy in love against and above all afflictions and above all worldly baits and profits The business is of whose love this is to be interpreted of Christs or ouâ—s If we understand it of Christs love then 't is really verified Christs love was as strong as death for he suffered death for us and overcame death for us he debased himself from the height of all Glory to the depth of all misery for our sakes Phil. 2.7 8. And 2 Cor. 8 9. Overcame all difficulties by the fervency of his love despising the cross and enduring the shame on the one hand Heb. 12.2 on the other refusing the offers of preferment Matth. 4.9 10. The Devil maketh an offer of all the World to Christ. Of ease Matth. 16.22 23. And Peter begun to rebuke him saying be it far from thee Lord. Of honour Matth. 27.40 43. Thou that destroyest the Temple and buildest it in three days save thy self if thou be the Son of God He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the Son of God But is also verified of Christians in their measure who love not their lives to the death overcome all difficulties Acts 21.13 Willing to die at Jerusalem Indure all afflictions Psa. 44.17 All this is come upon us yet we have not forsaken thee And suffer the loss of all worldly comforts Matth. 19 27. Behold we have forsaken all and followed thee And Luke 14.26 If any man come to me and hate not Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters and his own life also he cannot be my disciple But rather I apply it to the latter for 't is rendred as a reason why they beg a room in his heart the love that presseth us is of such a Vehement Nature that it cannot be resisted no more than death or the grave or fire can be resisted Nothing else but Christ can quench it and satisfy it such a constraining power it hath that the persons that have it are led captive by it an ardent affection and love to Christ
satisfied in Christ that he is willing to forgive the offences done to him for the Text saith God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their trespasses to them And our wicked disposition is done away and our hearts are converted and turned to the Lord Acts 9.6 And he trembled and astonished said Lord what wilt thou have me to do And 2 Chron. 30.8 But yield your selves unto the Lord and enter into his Sanctuary which he hath sanctifyed for ever and serve the Lord your God that the fierceness of his Wrath may be turned from you And we are drawn to enter into Covenant with the Lord even that new Covenant which is called the Covenant of his peace Isa. 54.10 And so of enemies we are made friends as Abraham because of his Covenant-relation is called the friend of God Jam. 2.23 In the new Covenant God offereth pardon and requireth repentance when we accept the offer the pardon procured for us by Christ and submit to the Conditions lay down the weapons of our defiance and give the hand to the Lord to walk with him in all new obedience then are we reconciled 2. This reconciliation is as firm and strong as our estate in innocency as if there had been no foregoing breach and in some considerations better especially when we look to the full effect of it As good as if the first Covenant had never been broken for God doth not only put away his anger but loveth us as if we never had been in hatred he doth not only pardon sinners but delight in them when they repent Men may forgive a fault but they do not forget it the person liveth in Vmbrage and suspicion with them still Absolom was pardoned but not to see the Kings face 2 Sam. 13.14 Shimei had a lease of his life but lived always as a hated and a suspected man 1 Kings 2.8 But now 't is otherwise here we find not only mercy with God but are as firmly instated into his love as ever Our sins are cast into the depths of the Sea Hosea 7.19 And Hosea 14.4 I will love them freely And Rom. 9.25 And her Beloved which was not Beloved He not only passeth by the injury but calls her Beloved Breaches between man and man are like deep wounds though healed the scares remain something sticketh or like a vessel sodered weak in the crack but here Beloved delighted in The Lord delighteth in thee Isa. 62.4 And he will rest in his love In some sort 't is more sure 't is not committed to us and the freedom of our wills A bone well set is strongest where broken Adam was happy but not established 3. This active reconciliation draweth many blessings along with it 1. Peace with God Rom. 5 1. Being justifyed by faith we have peace with God To have God an enemy is to have a sharp sword always hanging over our heads by a slender thread How can we look him in the face lift up our heads to Heaven think of him without trembling There is a God but he is our enemy how can we eat drink or sleep while God is our enemy Did we know what 't is to have God our enemy we should soon know that he cannot want instruments of revenge death may way-lay us in every place if we eat our meat may poyson or choak us if we go abroad God may cast us into Hell before we come home again if we sleep his wrath may take us napping For our damnation slumbereth not 2 Pet. 3.3 Surely 't is such a dreadful thing to be at enmity with God that we should not continue in that estate for a moment but when once you are at peace with God you stop all evil at the fountain head 2. Access to God with boldness and free trade into Heaven Rom. 5.2 By whom we have access by faith And Eph. 2.18 For through him we have both access by one Spirit unto the Father When a peace is made between two warring Nations Trading is revived When you have occasion to make use of God you may go to him as your reconciled Father there is no flaming sword to keep you out of paradise 3. Acceptance both of your persons and performances your persons are accepted Eph. 1 6. He hath accepted us in the Beloved to the praise of his glorious grace You are looked upon as members of Christ favourites of Heaven your duties and actions are accepted Heb. 11.4 By faith Abel offered a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain The sinful failings of our best actions are hid and covered they are not examined by a severe Judge but accepted by a loving Father 4. All the graces of the Spirit are fruits of our reconciliation with God Rom. 5.11 We joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the atoâ—ement Jewels of the Covenant wherewith the Spouse of Christ is decked Christ prayed that we might be loved as he was loved John 17. Not for degree but kind John 3 34. These are given as tokens and evidences of his Love the priviledge is so great that we cannot believe it without some real demonâ—â—ration of Gods heart towards us When Jacob heard that Joseph was alive and Governour of Egypt he would not believe it but when he saw the Waggons which Joseph sent to carry him Gen. 45.27 28. Then his Spirit revived within him So here 1 Thessa. 1.5 For our Gospel came not to you in word only but in power and in the Holy-Ghost and in much assurance 5. All outward blessings are sanctified especially the inâ—oyment of them which we have by another right and tenure Surely one that is reconciled to God cannot be miserable for all things are his 1 Cor. 3.23 Whatsoever falleth to his share comfort and cross cometh with a blessing And all worketh for good Rom. 8.28 Gods enmity is declared by raining snares Psal. 11.6 There is a secret war against the Soul but his love that always worketh for good Out of what corner soever the wind bloweth it always bloweth for good to his people 6. 'T is a pledge of Heaven Rom. 5.10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled by his death much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life The glorifying of a Saint is a more easie thing than the reconciling of a sinner suppose the one and you may suppose the other if God would pardon us and take us with all our faults he will much more glorify us when we are reconciled and sanctified 7. Our right to this priviledge beginneth assoon as we do believe in Christ. For upon these terms God hath set forth Christ Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by â—his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ. When our hearts are drawn to receive Christ upon these terms we are legally capable of his favour Now faith is nothing else but a broken hearted and thankful acceptance of Christ with a resolution to give up our selves to
into the hands of God A metaphor taken from one that is faln into the hands of 〈◊〉 enemy who lyeth is wait for him to take full revenge upon him if he catch him he is sure to pay for it Now we are let alone but then we fall into his hands and he will be righted for all the wrongs which we have done him Now when God shall have an immediate hand in the punishment of the wicked it will make it terrible indeed When God punisheth by the creatâ—re he can put a great deal of strength into the creature to overwhelm us by hail locusts flyes frogs if they come of Gods errand they are terrible but abuckeâ— cannot contain an Ocean as a Gyant striking with a sâ—raw in his hand he cannot put forth all his strength when God punisheth by creatures it 's like a Gyants striking with a straw in his hand But now by himself we fall into his own hands Again observe 't is the living God God liveth him self and continueth the life of the Creature God liveth for ever to reward his friends and punish his Adversaries A mortal man cannot extend punishment beyond death when they have killed the Body they can do more Matth. 10.28 We are mortal and they that persecute and hate us are mortal But since he liveth to all eternity he can punish to all eternity So long as God is God so long will Hell be Hell 'T is tedious to think of a short fit of pain In a â—eaverish distemper we count not only hours but Minutes when in such a distemper we cannot sleep in the night how tedious and grievous is it to us But what will it be to fall into the hands of the living God Thirdly The Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wrath of God is no vain Scar-crow and if any thing be matter of terrour the terrour of the Lord is so But alas who consider it or mind this Psa. 90.11 Who knoweth the power of his Anger According to his fear so is his wrath Who layeth it to heart so as to be sensible of his own danger while he is permitted to live We divert our thoughts by vain pleasures as Saul cured the evil Spirit by musick The delights of the flesh benum the conscience and exclude all thoughts of eternity Again 't is called wrath to come Matth 3.7 And 1 Thes. 1.10 'T is so called to denote the certainty and the terribleness of it The certainty of it it will most certainly come upon the wicked the day is not foretold but it is coming wrath hovereth over our heads 't is every day nearer as the salvation of the elect is Rom. 13.4 A pari Whether we sleep or wake we are all a step nearer a day nearer a night nearer to eternity They that are in a ship are swiftly carryed on to their Port by the wind though they know it not security sheweth 't is coming on apace Whose Judgment now of a long time lingereth not and their damnation slumbereth not 2. Pet. 2.3 They sleep but their damnation sleepeth not But Secondly 't is called wrath to come in regard of the terribleness of it There is a present wrath that men suffer and there is a wrath to come this is such a wrath as never was before present wrath may be slighted but wrath to come will stick close Jer. 5.3 I have stricken them but they have not grieved There is a sensless stupidness under judgments now but then men cannot have hard or insensible hearts if they would Present wrath may be reversed but men are then in their final estate and God will deal with them upon terms of grace no more Present wrath seiseth not upon the whole man the Body suffereth that the Soul may be saved but there Body and Soul are cast into Hell Present wrath is executed by the creatures but in the other World God is all in all Present wrath is mixed with comforts but there 't is an evil and an only evil Ezek. 7.5 There is no wicked man in the day of Gods patience but hath somewhat left him but there they shall drink of the Wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture Rev. 14.10 'T is not allayed and tempered with any mercies There is a difference in duration present wrath endeth with death The drowning of the World the burning of Sodom was a sad thing if a man had been by and seen the poor miserable creatures running from vallies to hills from hills to mountains from the mountains to the tops of trees and still the floods increasing upon them Or had heard the screechings when God rained Hell out of Heaven and seen the scalded Sodomites wallowing up and down in a deluge of Fire and Brimstone but all ended with death But this fire is never Quenched and the worm never dyeth Now should man know this and not perswade or be perswaded and take warning to flee from wrath to come Surely the thoughts of falling into the hands of God should shake the stoutest heart and awaken the dullest sinner rowse up the most careless to use all possible means to prevent it 2. The nearer it approacheth it should the more affect us 'T is but a short time to the general assizes we live in that Age of the World upon which the ends of the World are come 1 Cor. 10. â—â— Little Children it is the last hour 1 John 2.18 And let us stir up one anotherâ—punc so much the rather as ye see the day approacheth Heb. 10.25 It cannot be long to the end of time if we compare the remainder with what is past or the whole with eternity But for our particular doom and Judgment every man must die and be brought to his last account now the day of death approacheth apace the more of our life is past the less is yet to come every week day hour minute we approach nearer to death and death to us But alas we little think of these things every Soul of us within less than an hundred years it may be but ten or five or one shall be in Heaven or Hell The Judge is at the door Iâ—â— 5.9 We shall quickly be in another World Now should we hold our peace and let men go on sleepily to their own destruction or to suffer men to wasâ—e away more of their precious time before they get ready 'T is said Amos 6.3 They put far away the evil day And therefore it did not work upon them That is they put off the thoughts of it for as to the day its self they can neither put it on nor off 3. The more certain and unavoidable any evil is the greater matter of terrour Now 't is as certain as if it were begâ—n and there is no way to escape either tryal sentence or execution Solomon saith 〈…〉 4. The wrath of a King is as the messengers of death Because they have long hands and power to reach us The wrinkles of
their angry brow are as graves and furrows yet some have escaped the wrath of kings and worldly potentates as Elijah escaped the vengeance of Jezâ—â—el 1 Kings 19.2 3. The Gods do so to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them to morrow by this time And when he heard that he arose and fled to Beersheba for his life But there is no escaping Gods wrath Rev. 6.16 No avoiding his sight or escaping the stroke of his Justice Psa. 134.7 4. If it particularly concern every one of us a Clap of Thunder in our own Zenith doth more affright us than when 't is at a distance This did once belong to all and it doth still belong to the Impenitent and therefore we should take the more care that we be not of that number and while we are in the state of tryal we cannot be over confident I am sure 't is a sinful confidence that is joyned with the neglect of the means to shun it The dreadful consequence of that day to the wicked 't is in its self a matter of terror to all and to slight this terrour is to turn the Grace of God into Wantoness And it cometh either from unbelief or from a dull stupid senseless Spirit And if it produceth not caution and watchfulness and serious and diligent preparation 't is not a fruit of the assurance of the Love of God but of the security of the flesh I confess 't is a case of Conscience how to make the day of Judgment matter of joy and confidence and matter of terror and caution sometimes we are bidden to reflect upon it with joy and confidence so as we may love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 To lift up our heads because our Redemption draweth nigh Luke 17.28 To rejoice because we shall be partakers of the Blessedness promised 1 Pet. 4.14 At other times matter of fear and terrour These are not contrary The one is to prevent slight thoughts which are very familiar with us The other future perplexities and dejection of Spirit The strictness of our account the dreadful consequence to those that shall be found faulty should not discourage us in the way of duty eternal wrath should not be feared farther than to stir us up to renew our flight to Christ and to quicken us in his service who hath delivered us from wrath to come 2. The persons fearing Paul and his Colleagues together with all the parties who are to be judged That the unspeakable terrour of the Lord is a rational just and equitable ground of fear we have seen already But the doubt is how this could be so to Paul and his Colleagues especially if we consider it mainly as we ought with respect to the execution of punishment or the Wrath of God that shall abide on the impenitent I answer 1. To be only moved with terrour is slavish The wicked may out of fear of Hell be frighted into a little religiousness But Paul was moved by other principles Hope and Love as well as fear see the 14. verse The Love of Christ constraineth us But this among the rest is allowable 't is one of the Spirits motives to quicken us to fly to Christ and to take sanctuary at his grace Heb. 6.18 To ingage us to thankfulness for our deliverance 1 Thes. 1.10 Yea to stir us up to more holy diligence and sollicitude in pleasing God Heb. 13.28 29. The Eternal Wrath of God among other things doth rowse us up to serve him with Godly fear 2. Though Paul and his Colleagues had the Love of God shed abroad in their hearts and were assured of his favour and their everlasting Salvation yet knowing the terrour of the Lord They had a deeper reverence of his Majesty and so afraid to displease him or to be unfaithful in their charge and trust And could not endure that any others should do so Reverence of God as one able to destroy us and cast Body and Soul into Hell Fire is always necessary The fear of reverence remaineth in Heaven in the glorified Saints and Angels and Christ presseth us to this fear Luke 12.3 4. 3. We must distinguish between a perplexing distrustful fear and an aweful preventive-eschewing fear A distracting tormenting fear of Hell or the Wrath of God would weaken our delight in God and therefore the Love of God casts out this fear 1 Joh. 4.18 But now the aweful fear fleeing from wrath to come this doth not destroy peace of Conscience or joy in the Holy-Ghost but gard it rather This only quickeneth us to use those means by which we may avoid so great an evil Instances we have in Scripture Job that was sure that his Redeemer lived Job 19. Yet destruction from the Lord was a Terrour to him Chap. 31. That is he thought himself obliged to use all those means by which he might shun so great an evil So Paul We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens Yet knowing the Terrour of the Lord. 4. There are great reasons why this Terrour should have an influence upon us while we dwell in flesh 1. Because 't was once our due Eph. 3.2 And though we are delivered from it by Gods grace yet still 't is a fearful state which we cannot sufficiently shun and avoid 2dly We still deserve it after grace hath made a change in our Condition There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 Yet many things are condemnable We now and then do those things for which the Wrath of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience we deserve that God should say to us depart ye cursed 3 dly 'T is certainly a great and extream difficulty to get free from so great an evil 1 Pet. 4.18 We cannot get to the harbour but by encountring many a terrible storm and God is fain to discipline us that we may not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 I know I shall be saved but 't is a difficult thing to save me 3. The means how this fear cometh to be raised in us knowing This implyeth three things 1. A clear and explicite apprehension 2. A firm assent 3. Serious consideration 1. A distinct knowledge of this Article of Christs coming to Judgment 1 Thes. 5.2 You your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a Thief in the night 'T is good not only to know things but to know them perfectly for though a man may be saved by an implicite faith as he knoweth things in their common principle yet explicite faith and plenitude of knowledge or seeing round about the compass of any truth conduceth much to the practical improvement of it Instance in the Creation of the World To know the general truth may make me safe but a distinct explication thereof maketh us more admire the Wisdom Goodness and Power of God So for